Scholars Attend Valley State Prison Graduation
SFHC Scholars Ariel Rodriguez, Nancy Campos Ledezma, Alexandra Cota, and Rachel Mancebo pose with Fresno State faculty and graduates at Valley State Prison.
On Friday, October 18, 2024, incarcerated students at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla graduated as part of the inaugural class of Fresno State’s “Degrees of Change” program. The program was created four years ago following the passage of a bill in 2014 meant to expand access to higher education in prisons across the state. The program operates through the Division of Continuing and Global Education, allowing students to earn a B.A. in Social Science.
Four current and former Smittcamp Scholars (Ariel Rodriguez, Nancy Campos Ledezma, Alexandra Cota, and Rachel Mancebo) attended the event. These Scholars previously visited the prison as part of the HONOR 102 course in December 2023.
HONOR 102 is only offered to students in the Smittcamp Family Honors College program. One of the sections is taught by Dr. Emma Hughes, Professor of Criminology, who led efforts to create the Degrees of Change program. She currently serves as the program coordinator. Her HONOR 102’s course title is “Global Social Issues: Exploring Challenges and Solutions: Punishment and Prison.”
As the class syllabus explains, “Punishment and Prison [examines] the concept of punishment within the criminal legal system from criminological/sociological, historical, political, and philosophical perspectives and from varying methodological approaches. The course [explores] the administration of punishment in contemporary society with a particular focus on the use of and rationale for prisons. The growth of mass incarceration, the consequences for individuals and society, and the experiences of those released from prisons [is] explored. The course [examines] alternatives to incarceration, consider[s] international perspectives, and assess[es] ongoing prison and sentencing reforms.”
The presence of Smittcamp Scholars at the ceremony—in addition to President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval and faculty from the College of Social Sciences and the College of Arts and Humanities—helped to strengthen the connection between the prison campus and our home campus.
Alexandra Cota, who graduated from the SFHC in 2024 with a B.A. in Music-Vocal Performance, sang during the ceremony. She covered “Musetta's Waltz” (also known as “Quando m'en vo' ”) from Pucinni's La Bohème. She also performed Fresno State’s traditional “To Thee Our Alma Mater.” Alexandra is currently a graduate student in Music at Fresno State.
Her performance is featured in ABC30’s news story documenting the graduation:
Dr. Hughes said, “Given that 12 of the 23 VSP students graduated with some form of honors (8 summa cum laude; 4 magna cum laude), that all graduates had a Fresno State GPA of higher than 3.5, and that all of the VSP students made the President's List with a 4.0 in the Spring 2024 semester, I love being able to connect the VSP students for academic discussion with the outstanding Smittcamp Scholars and hope to take members of the current HON 102 class to an optional meeting at VSP this semester.”