The Fresno State Degrees of Change program celebrated its most recent group of graduates with families, friends, faculty and supporters on Oct. 15 at Valley State Prison near Chowchilla.
The event recognized 24 undergraduates who received bachelor’s degrees in social science from Fresno State from summer 2025 through fall 2026 while incarcerated. Six students received the facility’s first master’s degrees in humanities, awarded by California State University, Dominguez Hills.
“I applaud the graduates for the persistence and dedication they have shown throughout their studies,” said Dr. Emma Hughes, criminology professor and program coordinator. “They have truly engaged with their coursework in deep and meaningful ways. Moreover, they are committed to using education to make positive changes in their lives, as well as to helping others around them.”
Hughes helped create the program utilizing three decades of corrections and rehabilitation teaching, research and outreach expertise.
At the event, graduates Frank Robles and Kenneth Stringfellow gave moving speeches about the impact the Degrees of Change program had on their lives.
Another graduate, Joseph Hader, gave Hughes special credit in a tribute in the event program.
“Dr. Hughes formed a team that changed us forever and empathized with us,” Hader wrote. “Words do not do the experience justice. To know how elevating and enlightening it was for me, you have to experience it yourself. Through Fresno State, I was given something no one can take away: quality education.”
Hughes and other Fresno State faculty teach in-person courses, which include an interdisciplinary mix of required topics tied to criminology, diversity, environmental studies, government institutions, inequality, public policy, research methods and theory.
The College of Social Sciences oversees academic and curriculum components for the program that started in 2021. The Fresno State Division of Continuing and Global Education provides financial and administrative operation of the program. Campus extension specialist Julian Ramos helps coordinate the program and commencement. Funding is provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Pell Grants.
The first class of Fresno State graduates from Valley State Prison was honored in October 2024, followed by a similar ceremony at the nearby Central California Women’s Facility in March 2025. This academic year’s women’s commencement event is scheduled for March 2027.
Administrators from Valley State Prison and Fresno State attended the event, including Dr. Melinda Roberts, Fresno State’s provost and vice president for Academic Affairs; Dr. Scott Moore, dean of the Fresno State Division of Continuing and Global Education at Fresno State; and Dr. Elizabeth A. Lowham, dean of the College of Social Sciences at Fresno State.
Victor E. Bulldog IV, Fresno State’s live mascot, also greeted the new graduates and shared in the festivities.
