Hello All,
It feels like I've been traveling all over this month, but it's been worth it! The LINCS Partner meetings in Austin were absolutely fabulous, resulting in lots of connections to adult educators throughout the LINCS regions that we in corrections need to reach out to, share with and learn from! More on that to come...
Also, today was the opening session for the 69th Annual CEA Conference in Crystal City, Virginia. This year's theme is Education & Technology: The Pathway to Re-entry and the focus is technology, technology, technology! It will be a wonderful learning experience, and I will share thoughts and observations as the conference unfolds. I am looking forward to hearing John Linton and Johan Uvin of the Department of ED and Gerri Fiala of the Dept of Labor conduct a "Cross agency dialog on meeting the challenge of preparing incarcerated persons for post release success" over breakfast tomorrow.
Scott Budnick, of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, will address participants via WebEx from Ironwood Prison in California tomorrow evening at the Teacher of the Year dinner. Lots of exciting things happening! I will check in often to let you know how things are going and what's coming next. Please ask questions and I'll see what I can do to get answers! The conference agenda can be found at www.ceanational.org.
-- Heather Erwin
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Hello All,
This evening marked the TOY (Teacher of the year) dinner at the CEA conference. As technology as a pathway to re-entry is this year's conference theme, it was fitting that the speaker for the evening, Scott Budnick, remoted in via WebEx from California. It was a fabulous conversation between Mr. Budnick, about 20 of his inmate students at Ironwood Prison near Palm Springs, and the 300 or so educators in the banquet hall for dinner. Mr. Budnick delivered a moving monologue chronicling the genesis of his interest and involvement in correctional ed, as well as the numerous legislative victories which he has facilitated over the past few years. It was pretty remarkable. Then he opened the discussion up to his students who gave an overview of the post secondary program run through Ironwood. That was even more compelling, inspirational and moving. The CEA audience was able to ask questions and give accolades and enjoy the conversation. The technology access went off without a hitch and the subject matter was amazingly impressive. I was very grateful to be there and would love to hear thoughts and reactions from others who were there as well.
--Heather Erwin