The Power of Voice, the Strength of a Team: Reporting from NASFAA-PEP

 

Hi all!

I’m reporting from Washington, DC! I have always loved this city—I love the history and all the stories behind every museum here. Unfortunately, there was no time to go exploring in any of the museums—the NASFAA (National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators)- PEP (Prison Education Program) took up all of my time. Honestly? It was a lot of fun! A lot of learning, and a lot of connections and networking.

The most important thing that I learned during this meeting was that everyone needs to work as a team. There were meetings about compliance, registration, distance learning, the FAFSA, even a listening session from the Department of Education. I walked away with the confidence that my message has been right all along—it takes a team to lead and facilitate a successful prison education program. Think about it—students on the outside have the freedom to register online, fill out the FAFSA online, request accommodations on campus—things like that. But what about incarcerated students? How are they registering? How are they filling out the FAFSA? How are they getting the accommodations they need? The big issue for me here is, we need to support our students so they have the best future they could possibly have. Victoria Scott and Stacy Burnett at the opening session talked about the power of voice and the power of education. The data shows it, too—recidivism rates go down when you have more education. Education not only gives you practical knowledge but gives you the confidence to be who you want to be. To be a good citizen. That, to me, is paramount.

I was on a panel with Adam Kasarda, Jenifer Montag, and Dominic Winter. They are all champions in the student disability service field, whether it be with a DOC (Department of corrections) or a university. Even though I’ve been on quite a few panels and given quite a few presentations, this one was a bit harder for me. I was giving a presentation about a month ago, and about halfway through the presentation, I decided it was important to disclose that I do, in fact, have lived experience. Some of the individuals in the audience looked crestfallen, dejected, or looked as if they pitied me. My “inner demon” so to speak could have been talking to me, telling me that they did that when they really didn’t—but either way, I felt rejected. I felt like I was suddenly not an expert in this field. So I told that story to this audience, and said- you know what? Stacy Burnett (who is my heroine and one of my biggest role models!) said to own myself for who I am. She said to own our voices, and make sure our voices are heard. So, darn it, I made sure my voice was heard. This time, I didn’t see anyone look crestfallen. A win!

My favorite part of the whole thing was seeing people I’ve been connecting with in person. I saw people from Virgina, Nevada, Maine, Maryland, Illinois, California, the New England area… It was pretty exciting. I really enjoy seeing people who have a common interest—our students.

Again, my key takeaway from the presentations was the sense of TEAM. Too often, I hear that certain offices are not involved in their prison education program. This creates a burden on the PEP coordinators, and on the students. If the registration office works with the financial aid office and works with the student disability services office and the PEPs… And they all work together… a lot more can get done, and more efficiently, too.

I continue to emphasize that I strongly believe being proactive rather than being reactive when it comes to providing accommodations is a key factor in all of this. It saves money, time, and allows for more students to feel relaxed in the classroom. Having a checklist of things to make sure your classroom has, communicating with your students on their needs, making sure no one feels less than or more than—it’s a long ride, but so worth it. If we just wait until someone complains, then we are being reactive—rather than clean up the mess (which is more costly), avoid the mess from happening in the first place.

It was a good trip. It was great to connect. Kudos to Sheila Meiman and her team for putting this together, and I love that Ascendium was a sponsor of this event. To all the presenters, you were fabulous! Thank you for teaching me so much. I hope I taught you something, too.

I want to end on a personal note. The panel I was on went very well. I have no doubt of that. Outside of my introduction I only spoke once, but that was because we had so much content in an hour… There’s no way to condense it into an hour. But after the panel, my emotions got the best of me—I was feeling anxious, down, sad. I went back to my laptop and just focused on it to not burst into tears. It was like my inner self telling me that I was inefficient, I shouldn’t have been there, etc. I hate when that feeling happens. The reason I’m sharing this is because I believe that post incarceration syndrome is a real thing—and it was as if my anxiety wanted to eat me alive. And for what? A great panel?

I am so thankful for this disability access project. I am so excited to start working with everyone. We start our pilot visits in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which I am very excited about. It just so happens that Milwaukee is where The Community is located! I’ll finally get to see the team in person (although, we did just see each other in New Orleans in April!) In Washington DC I made several new contacts… I just know they will keep coming.

You know why? It’s because you KNOW all students are worth it.

Until next week! I'll be at the Horizons conference hosted by Jobs for the Future!! :)