When Renecha Gulley (pictured above) walked to the podium to give her commencement speech, it marked a special moment for the Degrees of Change program. Supporters came together on March 11 at the Central California Women’s Facility near Chowchilla to celebrate the first class to receive undergraduate college degrees from any women’s correctional facility in California.

They were joined by Fresno State faculty and administrators dressed in full regalia, and excited to honor 20 new Fresno State alumni. Dr. Emma Hughes, a criminology professor at Fresno State, helped oversee the creation of the program that put a mix of her teaching, research and community outreach experience with corrections and rehabilitation programs into practice.

“Being a part of Fresno State has not only been a great experience, but it has allowed us an opportunity to achieve an amazing accomplishment,” Gulley says. “It was not an easy journey.  Prison is not an ideal place to be, nor is it full of opportunities. Therefore when they do arise, we have to seize those moments. Today we became Fresno State alumni. It has also allowed us to become a part of something outside of the prison community, something connected to society.”

Beginning in spring 2021, the students took on-site classes from a broad mix of fields; including anthropology; criminology; sociology; and women’s, gender and sexuality studies. Students also took classes from faculty who traveled to the facility from the Africana studies; Chicano and Latin American studies; earth and environmental sciences; English; geography; media, communications and journalism; and political science departments.

The Bachelor’s of Social Sciences program is a degree completion program that allows students with an associate’s degree to take 60 upper division units focused on how social environment, culture, inequalities and policies shape society.  

– Geoff Thurner