AAUW Education Scholarship Program Sponsors 2025 Summer College Courses for Women at York Correctional Institute

The Education Scholarship Program (ESP) of the Lower Connecticut Valley (LCV) Branch of AAUW is funding two 7-week summer 2025 courses at York Correctional Institute (YCI) delivered by Trinity College, Hartford faculty. Instruction, tutoring, books and course materials are included in this $10,000 grant.

The women students are incarcerated at YCI. Trinity College has offered courses for the past 12 years through  the Trinity Prison Education Program (TPEP). Co-directors of TPEP are Professors Anna Terwiel, Joe Lea, and James Truman.

The courses, “Religion and Gender” and “Introduction to Ethics, are for 3 credits. Upon release from York, several students have transferred their York credits to other colleges and earned certificates and degrees. The Trinity courses emphasize critical thinking and expository writing.

This AAUW/Trinity College collaboration supports TPEP goals:   (1) to reduce educational inequities as very few of the students have a college degree; incarcerated women are mostly women  of color and poor; (2) to offer hope for inmates and their families; the students think of themselves as college students which provides a new more powerful  identity; and (3)  to support successful re-entry; research indicates a 43% reduction in re-incarceration and a 13% increase in employment following release.

The courses are capped at 12 students, often with a wait list. When openings occur, York clears applicants for security and Trinity then selects students. Normally summer courses aren’t offered, so the students are looking forward to the two summer 2025 courses.

Since 2010, LCV has provided scholarships to women 20 years and older pursuing education beyond high school: there are many scholarship opportunities for high school students, but fewer scholarships are available once in college. The TPEP/LCV Collaboration continues to support this tradition!