Northwestern University, ranked as the ninth-best college or university in the country, maintains a 7 percent acceptance rate, making it one of the most competitive institutions to gain admission to.
Students accepted into this prestigious university typically achieve SAT scores of 1500 and above.
Now, 16 incarcerated persons from the Illinois Department of Corrections have made history and can count themselves among the elite graduates from the school after their commencement this month.
In partnership with Oakton College, Northwestern University successfully launched its Prison Education Program, making it the first top-10 university to provide a bachelor’s degree program to incarcerated students.
The cohort began in 2018 with students selected from the Statesville Correctional Center, a multi-security prison in Crest Hill, Illinois, who wanted to work toward their associate degrees.
In December 2021, Northwestern University stepped up and said it would allow those students to continue matriculation through their program to pursue a bachelor’s. Over a dozen students were enrolled in a full-time course load throughout all four quarters of each academic year and earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in social sciences.
Jennifer Lackey, founding director of NPEP and the Wayne and Elizabeth Jones professor of philosophy and law at Northwestern, said it changed her life as an educator.
“It is often said that education is transformative, and I believe this even more wholeheartedly with each passing day in our community,” she said in a statement. “But I have also been powerfully moved by the way you all have transformed education. You have radically expanded what it means to be a Northwestern student. You have enriched Northwestern University in ways that will echo for decades to come.”
Ta-Nehisi Coates, the National Book Award winner and journalist, said it was a high honor to be the Nov. 15 graduation’s…
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