2023 Graduation Ceremony at Auburn Correctional Facility
October 13, 2023 – We hosted a graduation ceremony in the chapel at Auburn Correctional Facility, honoring our latest cohort of graduates there. Thirteen men have completed degree requirements for their Associate in Arts degree since the pandemic, and six were present to join us in celebrating their accomplishments with Cornell University and Cayuga Community College.
2023 Alumni Reunion and Symposium on Baccalaureate Education in Prison
June 15-17, 2023 – Our summer event kicked off with an alumni reception, followed by dinner and an award ceremony at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art — the event featured a cameo from NYS Assembly member Anna Kelles. The next day, we hosted a one-day symposium designed to inform Cornell’s proposed bachelor’s offering prison. The second evening, we hosted a CPEP Reunion dinner and we announced a new award, honoring Jan Zeserson, for those who distinguished themselves via their service to the CPEP community. On the final day we hosted a mini-conference on the Education Justice Tracker™ (EJT), a data scraping tool developed at Cornell to assist higher education in prison (HEP) programs better serve incarcerated students.
2023 Graduation Ceremony at Elmira Correctional Facility
May 12, 2023 – After years of perseverance, the Cornell Prison Education Program proudly celebrated a new class of graduates at Elmira Correctional Facility. During the ceremony, we conferred the degree of Associate in Liberal Arts and Sciences to seven accomplished graduates. Graduates’ friends and family travelled to attend the graduation ceremony from places as distant as Oklahoma and the Dominican Republic.
2022 CPEP Community Event in New York City
November 9, 2022 – We were joined by approximately 100 alumni, friends, and community supporters for a conversation with two Cornell alumni at our annual in-person event at the Cornell Club in New York City. Keri Blakinger and Skye Williamson provided an exciting conversation, and copies of Blakinger’s Corrections in Ink (MacMillan, 2022) were available for purchase.
2020, 2021 and 2022 Graduates at Statler Hotel Commencement
July 10, 2022 – During the first two years of the pandemic, 32 men graduated from the Cornell Prison Education Program, but in-person graduation ceremonies were cancelled due to COVID. By Summer of 2022, 17 graduates had been released from prison; we invited all to come to Cornell, with friends and family, to celebrate their accomplishments. Several alumni of the program attended as well, making this event something of a mini-reunion in addition to a commencement ceremony. Read the Cornell Chronicle story on this event for more information. (All photos are by Dave Burbank.)
2021 and 2022 Graduates at Cayuga Correctional Facility
June 15, 2022 – The pandemic has made it impossible to host graduation ceremonies inside the correctional facilities, so we brought caps & gowns into the Cayuga Correctional Facility to do a photo shoot with the graduates. They completed the college program under the most difficult of circumstances (COVID in prison). Nearly all of these men will have parole hearings this year. We wish them all the best. (Photos are by Dave Burbank.)
2020 Conversation with Zellnor Myrie (excerpt)
Excerpt from a Conversation with NYS Senator, Zellnor Myrie JD’16, about his experience teaching for CPEP and impact on his work in the legislature.
2020 Video on Darryl Epps (Cornell Chronicle)
February 25, 2020 – See the full story here.
2019 Video on Elmira CF Program (WENY News)
2019 Photo Gallery
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2019 – This year we celebrated our largest total number of incarcerated graduates for a single school year: 12 at Auburn Correctional Facility (CF), 9 at Cayuga CF and 2 at Five Points CF, for a total of 23 members in the CPEP Class of 2019. All were celebrated within their respective facilities, and all were offered support for family visitors to celebrate their achievements. Ithaca’s Mayor Svante Myrick delivered the Commencement address at Auburn, and folk singer Ani DiFranco gave a performance at Cayuga.
The year 2019 also saw the launch of an Associate’s degree granting program at Elmira CF, in partnership with Corning Community College. We also launched two new computer labs (at Auburn CF and Five Points CF). Ithaca College offered its first credit-bearing course in prison through CPEP this year. Our alumni group hosted an event in New York City featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Forman Jr.
2018 Commencement Video (WSYR News Report)
May 24, 2018 – The Cornell Prison Education Program celebrated its first Commencement Ceremony at Five Points Correctional Facility, two years after launching the program there in partnership with Cayuga Community College and the University of Rochester. This was also the first time we have conferred Cornell’s Certificate in Liberal Arts to nine men who satisfied the program’s requirements. Prof. Sandra Greene, Director of the Certificate program, shared her thoughts:
“I have attended many a graduation in the past: my own and virtually every college and university graduation ceremony where I have worked since I completed my PhD in 1980. The ceremony at Five Points, however, was the first that actually brought tears to my eyes. To see the Cayuga Community College graduates, and the Cornell University certificate holders with their families so jubilant in having accomplished so much under such trying circumstances was a truly a joy. In this setting, one really sees the value of education.”
2016 Commencement Video
October 20, 2016 – The Cornell Prison Education Program celebrated 15 students who completed their Associate’s degree at Auburn Correctional Facility. This was the third commencement at the prison, hosted by Cornell University in partnership with Cayuga Community College. In addition to the conferral of degrees, the ceremony included the Sunshine Lady Award (for academic achievement) and the Ricardo Callender Award (for student mentorship). Award recipients gave speeches to over 200 audience members in attendance, who joined the graduates for a special lunch with family and friends.
We interviewed members of the graduating class about their experience in the college program and the significance of completing their degree — this video is the result.
2016 Graduation Photo Gallery
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Students Reflect on Teaching in Prison
June 10, 2015 – Each year more than fifty Cornell undergraduates serve as teaching assistants in courses that are offered inside prison walls. We asked a few of them to reflect on their experience with the Cornell Prison Education Program, and this video is the result.
While we have often emphasized the dynamic classroom dialogues and against-all-odds achievements of our students inside prison walls, we have increasingly witnessed the accomplishments of our undergraduate and graduate volunteers in their work with the program. This feature of our work—the education of students both in prison and on campus—distinguishes the Cornell Prison Education Program.
2014 Commencement Video
December 10, 2014 – The Cornell Prison Education Program community convened for a heartwarming ceremony to confer A.A. degrees to our second graduating class at the state prison in Auburn, New York. Our students together with their families, their teachers, dignitaries from Cornell University and Cayuga Community College, and the prison administration created an afternoon of shared humanity. It transpired in the auditorium and mess hall of Auburn Correctional Facility. Students told stories of the transformative power of education and of mutual support and caring. And as one of our key supporters put it, this day was a living testament to the endurance of the human spirit.
The photos below attempt to convey the joy attending this graduation. In this season of miracles, this one transcended the boundary between our communities–those within and those outside those prison walls.
2014 Graduation Photo Gallery
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