JENNY E. GREENE

In 2006, Mark Krumholz started the Prison Teaching Initiative in Princeton.  Since 2006, I have been an instructor and organizer of this program, in collaboration with Jill Knapp.  Many of the students and postdocs in the Princeton Astrophysics Department get invaluable teaching experience through our program.

 

Some basic information about our program:

Princeton Teaching Initiative at Princeton University is an all-volunteer group formed to teach for-credit college courses in the New Jersey state prison system. The courses are taught to the curriculum of Mercer County Community
College (MCCC), which accredits the courses and maintains the students’ transcripts. Volunteer professors, postdoctoral fellows, staff, graduate students and undergraduate students from Princeton University and from 
the Institute for Advanced Study, Rutgers University and other local academic institutions teach 3- or 4-credit courses each semester, with all the classroom instruction by teachers with an MA degree or higher. The credits can be transferred to other colleges in the NJ state system,  and, together with courses taught by MCCC and the College of New Jersey (supported by federal grants to MCCC and TCNJ and grants from the SunshineLady Foundation and the Federal Second Chance Act to TCNJ), can lead to a two-year Associate's degree.

 

Jill and I have written a short piece for the Thought & Action Journal.  There are related programs across the country, for instance here.