Inside-Out Alumni

Katie D.

October 29, 2010 - 6:37 PM

Traditionally, Inside-Out classes represent a single experience. Students, both from the university and from the correctional institutions, take a single Inside-Out class. They complete group projects together, go through an entire term of dialogue and group building, and then continue their lives, although often in a renewed and transformed way.

But transformation is a hard thing to contain, and students who have had experiences like this are rarely able to be contained and contented to go back to life as usual. So there is a great revolution within the Inside-Out Program, creating new ways for students to participate beyond that single class.

In Oregon, this means first that people are able to take multiple classes. Some of the inside students have already taken four classes. They are incredibly valuable classmates because of their previous experience and resulting comfort level in the classroom. So a single class has expanded to allow for multiple courses, all of which the inside students can receive credit for. This also means that the inside group is working on creating an Education Club on the inside, allowing for fund raising, event holding, and other privileges.

Then there's the Turned Inside-Out project, that included both inside and outside leadership and contributors.(http://www.isupportuoregon.org/my_duckstory/blog/katie_d/turned_insideout_magazine_complete) I hope that there will be future versions of the magazines, as well as future projects that allow for collaboration.

Last Friday, Sister Helen Prejean conducted an Inside-Out workshop on writing autobiography. All members of the workshops were previous Inside-Out students, both from the prison population and the University of Oregon group. The workshop was incredible: the twenty-four participants had a chance to dialogue with one another about writing, to do a brief writing exercise, and to work together to critique and praise one another's writing.

On the University side of things, we have been conducting a book club at the Serbu juvenile facility for four months. ( http://www.isupportuoregon.org/my_duckstory/blog/katie_d/book_club_pilot_project_concluded ) This is a unique and exciting opportunity for UO students to interact with youth, and to create a new and innovative program.

All this activity in Oregon has caused quite a stir in the national Inside-Out community. I am a part of the national Inside-Out Alumni steering committee, and we are working to advance alumni involvement on a national level. This includes not only encouraging new groups to form, but also in setting protocols and parameters for the new groups. There are thousands of alumni nation-wide, now, both on the inside and the outside. The outside group includes individuals who are still at their universities, and those who have graduated and moved on. Some are centered in states or regions that are extremely active in Inside-Out, and others are more active. Some, including Oregon alumni, have graduated and moved to other countries, let alone other cities. But everywhere there is an energy and desire to apply what we learned in the classroom into action in the wider world. The examples of Turned Inside-Out magazine and the book club are two new ways for students to stay involved, while maintaining the values of inside and outside involvement and ownership, as well as the overall rules and desires of the program.

Most exciting, for me at least, is the thought that we are part of something larger. Inside-Out happens across the country, and alumni groups are starting to demonstrate this. I have the opportunity of working with amazing alumni in Philadelphia, and to put protocols into place for future alumni action. Once we develop a working document of guidelines and best practices, I will be involved in encouraging and empowering other groups of students to take action in the places where they live.

We are not creating groups of "activists" in the sense of lobbyists or political advocates. Rather, we are empowering the direct encounter of individuals, and the exchange of ideas on a level that promotes dialogue and personal transformation.

I am so proud of the role that the University of Oregon is playing in this effort. I am excited about the future projects and current progress. There is so much to be done, and by enabling Inside-Out alumni to create and enact, we are developing the lasting structures to continue the transformation.