“I know from reading the newsletters that CPEP is good at using limited resources to make a big impact.”
When Joanna Chen ’14, who now works at a 3D printing company in Boston, was a Cornell undergraduate, she was a TA for a pre-college writing course taught in prison by Cornell Professor Jan Zeserson. The experience opened her eyes to the importance of educational opportunities for nontraditional students, including incarcerated people.
Nontraditional students, Chen points out, “have made a conscious decision to pursue education, not just the next step in life that’s expected of them. So the people who were in the CPEP class felt like they were trying to make the most of their time. That rubbed off on the TAs, the teachers, everyone was putting in full effort. It created a positive feedback loop.”
Today, Chen contributes a modest, recurring monthly gift to support the Cornell Prison Education Program because she wants “to put my money where my values are.”
Executive Director Rob Scott says, “Support like Joanna’s means a lot and adds up to significant resources. There are around 400 individuals, most former TAs, faculty, or students, who make charitable donations in a given year, and we use those funds to help pay for classroom materials, part-time staff, and to bring CPEP graduates’ families to our graduation ceremonies among other things.”
Footnote: Joanna is pictured at the first CPEP Graduation Weekend Reception on campus which was where CPEP undergraduates first wore green graduation cords in commemoration of the green prison uniforms worn by our incarcerated students.