Mikey Hoag Is on a Mission. Alzheimer’s Doesn’t Stand a Chance.
The BC trustee, who lost both her parents to the deadly disease, has become one of the country’s leading fundraisers for a cure.
Clockwise from left: Student Christian Miranda; program director Patrick Conway; professor Julia Devoy; student Nurudeen Alabi; and professor Cherie McGill photographed in Gasson Hall.
Photo: Caitlin Cunningham
Winter 2024
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克里斯蒂安·米兰达(Christian Miranda)作为一名学生第一次踏上电子游戏软件的校园, he was fifty-three years old and had just been released from prison. It was a frigid morning in February 2023, 但这位波士顿本地人几乎没有注意到，因为他抬头看着加森大厅庄严的塔楼. “It was like I went back to being eighteen years old, fresh out of high school,” he recalled recently.
The moment may have marked Miranda’s first trip to the Heights, but his relationship with the University had begun three years earlier. Miranda, who’d been convicted on drug charges, 在雪莉的马萨诸塞州惩教所服刑二十年, Massachusetts, which is known as MCI-Shirley. In 2020, 米兰达是当年电子游戏软件监狱教育计划录取的16名MCI-Shirley囚犯之一.
该项目被称为PEP，于2019年启动，资金来自一位匿名捐赠者. 它成为巴德监狱倡议的监狱文科联盟的成员, a national network of prison education programs. Each week, 参加PEP的人大约要上10个小时的大学教师课, attend office hours and tutoring sessions, complete assignments and group projects, and take part in extracurricular activities. And with enough credits, 他们有资格获得由大学自己颁发的应用文科学士学位.
So far, sixty-three prisoners have entered the PEP, which is free to attend, 第一批毕业证书将于今年秋天在MCI-Shirley举行的毕业典礼上颁发. Three students, including Miranda, 已经从监狱中释放，并在BC的伍兹高等教育学院继续他们的教育.
“当我们考虑如何在电子游戏软件实现我们的使命时, part of it is engaging with communities like those at MCI-Shirley,” said Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley, who helped to launch the program and has taught several classes in it. 最早的一些耶稣会教育发生在16世纪的监狱里, he noted. “作为一名历史学家，我很高兴能想到几个世纪以来耶稣会的工作是如何与被监禁的人联系在一起的，并试图打开可能性，给监狱里的人带来希望.”
Within MCI-Shirley从一开始，人们对PEP的兴趣就很高。PEP是一座中等和最低安全级别的男子监狱. Nearly one hundred prisoners applied for the inaugural class, submitting a personal statement and academic essay, and sixteen were eventually accepted. Every fall, the admissions team selects a new cohort of similar size.
努尔丁·阿拉比(Nurudeen Alabi)在2019年听说PEP时，因过失杀人罪被判入狱17年. He asked Isabel Lane, the program’s director at the time, 这和他参加过的其他监狱教育项目有什么不同. She told him that, in every way possible, PEP课程将包含与Chestnut Hill校园里教授给学生的相同的材料. “That’s what I wanted, and every professor kept up to that,” Alabi said. “I felt like I was really on a college campus.”
阿拉比在2022年从MCI-Shirley获释之前，完成了10门课程. Each class took place inside the prison classroom, its beige walls adorned with BC banners and a framed portrait of St. Ignatius. 阿拉比去年进入伍兹学院，主修商科. 部分得益于他在监狱里获得的40个学分，他预计将于2025年毕业. “It changed the trajectory of my life,” Alabi said. “Growing up in inner city Boston, education wasn’t a big thing, 但在PEP的经历让我明白，在你的社区之外还有生活, your city, your state, that education can bring you to.”
In four years, 该课程的课程从三门哲学导论课程发展而来, algebra, 并参照了伍兹学院应用文科课程的八门课程目录. 学生们选修文科课程和专业课程，旨在使他们熟悉现代工作环境. Zipcar前高管布莱恩·哈林顿(Brian Harrington) 1989年教授的一门创业课程已成为该项目最受欢迎的课程之一, 学生们在他们的期末报告中设计和推销一个原创的商业想法.
Clockwise from top left: Doctoral student Babatunde Alford; program director Patrick Conway; instructor Brian Harrington; and doctoral student Marisa Lally. Photos: Massachusetts Department of Correction
多年来，克里斯蒂安·米兰达一直要求在监狱开设大学水平的课程, 和其他15个学生一起坐在哈林顿这样的教室里，这是他一直渴望的智力挑战. “It refocused me,” he said. 他也喜欢MCI教室里每个人都有共同的使命感. Any rivalries were left at the door, Miranda said, making room for productive class discussions and group projects. “It was like a family,” he said. “这个项目迫使你离得如此之近，以至于你意识到你们有更多的共同点.”
More than thirty faculty members from all corners of campus have signed up to teach in the PEP, 向惩教署提交幻灯片教学计划，每周开车一小时到MCI-Shirley去上课. After passing through metal detectors, 他们教三个小时的课，然后再返回栗树山.
“I’ve never met a more motivated group in my life,BC大学本科生和项目副院长Julia Devoy说, an applied psychologist who has taught two courses in the PEP. “他们没有互联网，没有电子邮件，也没有谷歌幻灯片，但他们的项目超出了你的想象. You can see the desire to learn.”
Quigley signed up to teach in the PEP in spring 2022, juggling his duties as provost with lesson planning and grading. His course, Politics and Ideas in American History, explored seminal political documents, including Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the Federalist Papers. “If you went in at 6:15, when class started, and asked one question, the men would carry it to 9:15,” Quigley recalled. “It was one of the greatest teaching experiences of my career.”
Patrick Conway, MA’12, PhD’22, 谁在监狱教育领域工作了十多年，并于2021年接任项目主管, is excited about the program’s growth. 三名不列颠哥伦比亚省的博士生现在每周访问监狱一次，提供学术支持, and a new PEP student committee is coming up with ideas of its own, 比如一个辅导小组，帮助其他囚犯学习GED或参加社区大学项目. “They really care about the PEP,” Conway said. “我们为实现这一目标付出了很多努力，但学生们发挥了巨大的作用. They’re super invested in Boston College.” 
