On Monday December 2nd, a convening was held for all participants involved in the success and ongoing mission of OPEEP. For the first time, OSU faculty members involved in planning, executing, supporting, and overseeing OPEEP's needs were able to meet with the incarcerated students of the embedded degree program and LAM (Liberation at the Margins) Collective members who reside at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. Students who have truly taken this opportunity for higher education to heart.
Students and LAM members spent the afternoon sharing their experiences of OPEEP initiatives, lending new perspectives, and delivering deeper meaning to those who work diligently to ensure its existence. Presentations included stories of trepidation, struggle, adaptation, and overcoming, as well as words of gratitude and examples of exactly how much this initiative changes the everyday lives of incarcerated students. One student expressed how freeing it feels to be in a classroom with campus staff and students. That for those few hours she is not a prisoner- she is a student. A sentiment that left the rest of the students teary-eyed and nodding in agreement. The atmosphere created and supported by staff in that space is one of humanization and learning, a feeling not easily found in carceral settings.
Contrary to popular assumption, the learning is not a one-way street. The effect that incarcerated students have had on campus students and OSU staff has been equally impactful; breaking stereotypes about incarcerated living and effectively pushing the paradigm of incarcerated persons away from dehumanization.
We are just people with much of the same struggles, hopes, dreams, and aspirations as any of the campus students or staff, and often with extraordinary life experiences and perspectives to offer. Rather than being told or reading about it, those present were able to hear it, see it, feel it, and know it for truth. The continued compassion that motivates inside and outside members of OPEEP, serves as a foundation for a future of reciprocity between those with freedom and those without. This convening has served as an example, and a reminder, of how much we have to learn from each other.
