On September 18, 2025, NEPEC Project Manager Zeia Fawaz was in attendance as Boston College’s Prison Education Program (BCPEP) held its second graduation ceremony, this time for four students who have completed the Liberal Arts baccalaureate program at Massachusetts Correctional Institution - Shirley (MCI-Shirley).  

The excitement, pride, and celebratory energy was palpable throughout the crowd as the music of a brass band filled the white tent where the ceremony was being held. Those in attendance included the personal guests of graduates, program alumni, current residents, representatives from local nonprofits, state Senator Jamie Eldridge, Commissioner Shawn Jenkins, and higher education in prison program staff and faculty.  

Three of the graduates gave remarks at the commencement, highlighting their unique paths to graduation and – in some instances – the impact of mentorship on their academic journeys. In his speech, the cohort’s valedictorian remarked on the irony inherent in the name 'Second Chance Pell,’ as some people need more than one second chance and provided with the consistent opportunity to do better that so many of us are afforded outside of prison. The speeches were not only moving; they were inspiring and affirmed the simple, yet powerful fact that when people have support, opportunities, and belief in their ability to achieve great things, they can.  

After the ceremony’s conclusion, guests were given the opportunity to network and mingle. Zeia was grateful for the opportunity to speak with program providers, members of the corrections team, and MCI – Shirley residents.  

Many of those in Boston College’s (BC) program noted that their initial experiences with education in the facility were with Tufts and Mount Wachusett Community College’s (MWCC) program – the latter began as a certificate offering before growing into an associate degree and eventually a 2+2 pathway with BC. These experiences with other institutional programming inspired them to eventually apply for admission to BC’s baccalaureate program. In fact, several attendees – residents and non-residents alike – made note of how grateful they were for the hard work of Tressa Stazinski at MWCC, who was in attendance, and Hilary Binda at Tufts. In this way, the event underscored the highly collaborative nature of efforts to expand access to and success within higher education in prison.   

We look forward to seeing some of the September ceremony graduates at Boston College’s on-campus commencement ceremony in the spring of 2026.  

Professor Shelly Tenenbaum’s work teaching in prisons reinforced her belief in the “transformative power of knowledge” and ultimately inspired her to co-found Liberal Arts for Returning Citizens (LARC) — a tuition-free, non-matriculating, credit-bearing college program for formerly incarcerated individuals. The program is affiliated with Clark University in Worcester, MA, where Tenenbaum is a faculty in the Sociology department. 

The program, which launched in the fall of 2022, has steadily increased the number of classes they offer from six during its first year to 14 in 2025. The coursework encompasses a broad spectrum of liberal arts subjects as well as entrepreneurship and essential computer skills. All classes are taught at night (from 6 to 9 PM ET), are seven weeks long, and graded pass/fail. LARC’s programming is continuing to grow with their inaugural certificate program in digital literacy launching this fall.   

LARC strives to offer students well-rounded support by providing dinner during class time, free textbooks, sponsored internships, and laptops and stipends for course completion. In 2025, LARC financially sponsored three internships and partnered with the city of Worcester to fund two more. Students who take courses through LARC are eligible to receive internship stipends of $2,500 once per year if they complete a 14-week internship for 10 hours a week. Similarly, if students successfully complete three classes in any given year, they are awarded $1,000 and are eligible to receive such a stipend annually.  

“There are many challenges that the students face, and we’re trying to eliminate at least whatever institutional barriers that we can. It’s not just about teaching content, it’s about building confidence.” — Shelly Tenenbaum, LARC co-founder and director, Clark University, in ClarkU news. 

On September 10 and 11, 2025, NEPEC Director, Sarah Kuczynski, attended the Correctional Leaders Association Northeast Region Meeting in Bretton Woods, NH. The event was full of familiar faces from NEPEC's current coalition-driven work in the Granite State as well as from NEBHE’s previous work facilitating the New England Commission on the Future of Higher Education in Prison.  

Sarah had the opportunity to present alongside some of NEPEC’s partners, who are engaged in the ongoing state strategic planning work we are supporting in New Hampshire, including Nicholas Duffy, Director of Rehabilitative Services at the New Hampshire Department of Corrections (NHDOC), and Jessica Hicklin, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Unlocked Labs. The presentation was organized around the central question of how advances in student success and technological infrastructure can be made and sustained in a complex system like Corrections. 

The group explored the journey from the formation of the Corrections Education and Vocational Planning Group (CEVPG) under NH SB376 and RSA 651-A:22-b, the expansion of this group from year one to present day, and the crucial role this planning group has played in meaningfully laying the ground work to expand access to twenty-first century technology and higher education in prison programming over the last two years. The CEVPG has been supported by the NEPEC team at NEBHE over the eight months as the group has moved through NEPEC’s cross-state agency strategic planning work.  

As the presentation underscored, this group has been beneficial in forging direct, practical lines of communication for those working to expand access to education in NH correctional facilities. Where the ecosystem is concerned, the CEVPG has enhanced a shared sense of responsibility and ownership over higher education in prison to encompass as true partners state higher education system leads. Moreover, the presentation emphasized some promising early indicators of the way that the planning group has been able to maintain momentum even in the face of individual agency staff transitions—including transitions in executive leadership.  

"It was an honor to share the stage with collaborators like Nick and Jess for whom I have truly infinite amounts of respect. The cross state-agency planning process that NEPEC is supporting in New Hampshire can be intensive work that asks a lot of state stakeholders who are already juggling many competing priorities and never-ending to-do lists,” says Sarah. “It was a real joy to get to look up from that work for a moment to join with Nick and Jess to provide exciting updates to executive correctional leadership from across the Northeast region.” 

Sarah and Nick were not the only CEVPG members to present at CLA Northeast. Laurie Foster, who is the Deputy Director of Rehabilitative Services at NHDOC, was part of a presentation about the department's collaboration with the NH Department of Health and Human Services on New Hampshire’s new Community Reentry (CRE) Medicaid 1115(a) waiver, which uses federal Medicaid funds to provide pre-release behavioral health services and strengthen care connections for individuals transitioning from incarceration back into the community. Laurie highlighted the multiple benefits this new initiative provides for reentering individuals, including prioritized, timely care and more robust prescription support for folks releasing to ensure continuity of care while folks meet with their new community health providers.   

Additionally, Evenor Pineda, who is the Intervention Services Director with the Manchester Police Athletic League, co-presented alongside Bill Duffy, Chief Probation Parole Officer at NHDOC, on the CHOICES High Risk Mentoring Program. The program, which is housed within the Manchester Police Athletic League, seeks to divert youth from the criminal legal system through mentorship and community engagement. The program is providing mentor training to currently incarcerated individuals to ensure they are able to support the growing need for mentors when they release. 

The NEPEC team continues to be inspired by the CEVPG members, who work tirelessly to continuously improve the state of educational and vocational opportunities within NHDOC facilities. We are excited to continue to share more about this work as it unfolds.  

On September 24, 2025, NEPEC hosted its third quarterly workshop, “Approaches to Reentry: Programs and Pathways in New England.” The workshop explored different approaches to providing reentry services, featuring three expert panelists that took attendees through their programs’ unique reentry offerings.  



James Monteiro, Executive Director and Founder of the Reentry Campus Program (RCP) in Rhode Island, highlighted RCP’s use of prior learning assessments to award college credit for learning that occurs outside of a traditional classroom and the program's dedicated housing unit pilot, which aims to foster a supportive and collaborative environment among incarcerated students. 

Patrick Flynn, Student Services Coordinator and Prison Education Partnership Reentry Specialist at the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA), spoke to UMA’s comprehensive, student-centered approach to reentry support. In his role, Patrick begins working with incarcerated students up to a year before their release, meeting in-person with students on a monthly basis to support career readiness and educational planning. Upon release, students receive laptops and welcome packages to foster connection and support students continuing their education on UMA's campus.  

Billi Dunham, Associate Director of Corrections Post-Secondary Education Initiative at the Community College of Vermont (CCV), showcased CCV's educational vouchers, which are available to students transitioning into the community from correctional facilities but also to correctional officers employed in Vermont facilities. The vouchers cover tuition, fees, and textbooks for up to two classes at CCV. She also introduced CCV’s new course, Theories of Resilience During Transition, which is designed to help students understand and navigate the emotional, psychological, and social challenges of reentry.   

The workshop concluded with a lively Q&A. The approaches shared by our presenters offered powerful examples of how educational programs adopt a student-centered approach and partner with community-based organizations to prepare individuals for long-term success post-release. By sharing these models, the NEPEC team hopes to facilitate cross-state knowledge-sharing among program providers working to strengthen reentry support across New England and beyond.  

To access the workshop recording, slide deck, and post-event resources shared by our presenters, please click here. We look forward to seeing everyone at our next virtual workshop--the fourth in this inaugural quarterly series. Save the date for Wednesday, December 17, 2025 at 3 PM EST for an expert panel conversation on how states in our region are working to establish stakeholder groups and set success metrics for the purposes of meeting the Best Interest Determination (BID) requirement for Pell-eligible Prison Education Programs.