Please join the students, faculty, and staff of the Hope-Western Prison Education Program in welcoming Amy Piescer, who began work last week as HWPEP’s first Operations Coordinator. Raised in Japan, Amy recently graduated with a Bachelor’s in Social Work and a major in Psychology from Calvin University, where she interned with the Calvin Prison Initiative …
Author Archives: Richard Ray
New Creations
On this Saturday morning before Easter I stare out of my window at the weak Eastern light that begins to illumine the world and give thanks for the impending joy of new creation which is — even now — rising and about to be revealed. The scriptures for the Easter Vigil which will conclude this …
The Wisdom of 3000 Years
Libraries are repositories of all that is known and has been known for 3,000 years. They are places — physical structures — containing the written words of millenia. But they are also programs dedicated to connecting those words with eager learners. How do the eager learners of the Hope-Western Prison Education Program incarcerated in Muskegon …
Remarkable Stories From B-104
re·mark·a·ble/rəˈmärkəb(ə)l/(adjective) worthy of attention; striking. Room B-104 is located in Muskegon Correctional Facility’s school building. It is the home of the Hope-Western Prison Education Program. Remarkable things happen there. Technically this column should be retitled “Remarkable Stories from LTA 1 and 2.” Prison officials reassigned the Hope-Western Prison Education Program to new digs at Muskegon …
“Being With” or “Doing For”
As we enter the last week of the semester, the HWPEP students at Muskegon Correctional Facility are hard at work writing end-of-term papers and preparing for their final exam in Professor David Stubbs’ Faith Seeking Understanding course. A COVID outbreak in the students’ living unit forced us to deliver the course in a distanced manner …
Education or Ministry?
Is the Hope-Western Prison Education Program primarily oriented toward education? Or is it more aligned with ministry? The program is an accredited academic program leading to a Bachelor’s degree. It is intellectually rigorous, oriented to the liberal arts, and is therefore broad in its design while also providing depth of study in a major area …
Finding Their Bearings
New college students the world over begin their undergraduate studies by spending a few days being oriented to the academic life by faculty, staff, and more experienced students. The Hope-Western Prison Education Program students at Muskegon Correctional Facility are no different. There won’t be the usual campus tours or “getting to know you” games common …
“I was in prison, and you came to visit me.”
The Summer 2021 issue of News from Hope College features an article on the Hope-Western Prison Education Program.
BA Degree Phase Announced
Today Hope College, Western Theological Seminary, and the Michigan Department of Corrections announced a six-year renewable agreement to offer a Hope BA at Muskegon Correctional Facility. Read more about it here>>
Prove It
The Hope-Western Prison Education Program operated in a non-credit mode from March 2018 through July 2021. The 20 students in the program’s first cohort took six courses and engaged in two book studies in this pilot phase of the program. Here is what we learned: Students Proposition 1: Incarcerated men serving long sentences are capable …