September 5, 2026
We held our 2026 CPEP Alumni Reunion at the Statler Hotel on Cornell’s Ithaca campus this past month. We were joined by our partners at SUNY who are working with us to expand our collective reentry programs. It was a wonderful reunion of our alumni, local instructors, volunteers and other supporters.
This year, we honored Julia Mizutani, Librarian and Adjunct Professor at Cornell Law School, with the Jan Zeserson Community Service Award in recognition of her years of volunteer work to elevate programming for our students in the prison system. CPEP teams up with Cornell Law, via Mizutani, to facilitate a Prison Education Practicum and an in-prison debate society that debates the Cornell Speech and Debate Team from campus once per year.
We also honored David Bendezu, CPEP’14 of the Fortune Society with the CPEP Alumni Community Service Award for his ongoing support of fellow alumni and others as they navigate reentry.