Education and Camp Guide 2.1 - Flipbook - Page 9
The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, February 1, 2026
and external partners. After this experience, I know this is what I want to do. I
want to start a nonprofit.”
While Salisbury University and AACC
extend service into surrounding neighborhoods, Goucher College brings higher
education directly into Maryland’s correctional facilities through the Goucher
Prison Education Partnership (GPEP).
Since 2012, GPEP has offered incarcerated students the opportunity to take
Goucher College courses for credit.
Faculty teach in two Maryland state
prisons: the Maryland Correctional
Institution-Jessup and the Maryland
Correctional Institution for Women.
“It has grown from a small book club
in 2012 to 130 students enrolled,” says
Ann Duncan, executive director of GPEP.
“The classes offered are the same ones
taught on Goucher’s Towson campus.”
Earlier this year, GPEP unveiled the
state’s first prison classrooms created exclusively for college use at the
Maryland Correctional Institution for
Women. The milestone allows students
to enroll full-time and complete degrees
more efficiently.
GPEP students who graduate while
in prison earn a Goucher College bachelor’s degree in American studies. Each
semester, more than 100 incarcerated
students participate in GPEP courses in
writing, history, sociology, languages and
the sciences.
“By securing additional classroom
spaces, we’re able to enroll students full
time,” Duncan says. “Before, students
were only enrolled part time and often
went home without finishing a degree.
Those who return home before completing their degree can finish on Goucher’s
main campus or apply their college credits to another college, but it’s better if they
have the degree before they go home.
Our goal is to send people home with
their degree – it’s much more motivating.”
These dedicated classrooms allow
courses to be held throughout the day
rather than only in the evenings, creating
a more traditional academic environment.
The spaces support group discussion,
consistent scheduling and expanded
tutoring.
“As a result, the time needed to earn
a degree has been reduced from eight or
nine years to four or five,” Duncan says.
Research consistently shows that
higher education is among the most
effective strategies for reducing recidivism and improving post-release employment outcomes.
Not Just a Dream, continued from page 6
those existing strengths.” Her goal as an
occupational scientist and therapist is to
improve mental health beyond the clinical
setting and inform social transformation
that helps communities flourish together
through what they do.
At Goucher College, there are three
low-residency master’s degree programs offered: Historic Preservation (HP),
Cultural Sustainability (CS) and an MFA in
Nonfiction. The classes in each program
meet online and are synchronous, usually
planned for evenings. Core subjects are
required in each discipline and electives
in their chosen field. Scholarships and
financial aid are available.
Each cohort also meets once or twice
a year in person. The MFA non-fiction
program goes to New York City each
year to meet with editors and publishers.
The HP and CS groups have gone to
Washington, D.C. to learn about policy
and advocacy, but this year will be back
in Baltimore to focus on heritage trades.
“We also have a study abroad multidisciplinary field school that we have
developed in Nepal,” says Melanie Lytle,
assistant professor and director of the
HP and CS programs. We bring in stu-
dents from environmental sustainability
and management, historic preservation
and cultural sustainability, for a fantastic
two weeks of blended expertise and
experience.”
Most classes require a student to
identify something in their own community to use as a main project or the focus of
a paper. This will help them identify what
they will do as their capstone project or
thesis at the end of their studies under the
guidance of a committee.
One such project that is still in the
works is being done by historic preservation student Bennett King. By designing
a tool kit for establishing legacy business
programs on a website, he is providing
everything you need to know if you are
interested in supporting and preserving
those businesses in your community that
have been there a long time but are facing
challenges today. He is focusing specifically on businesses that are key to the
welfare and culture of the community.
Graduates can find employment in
many places, including community arts
organizations, social service or community building organizations, historic building
or trades preservation, or as entrepreneurs, to name only a few of the opportunities available.
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