Thanks to prison inmates involved in a college program at Oregon State Correctional Institution, Londer Learning Center students will wear traditional caps and gowns at their 2013 GED Graduation.
The Caps and Gowns project was designed by incarcerated students engaged in a 3-credit College Inside course with Chemeketa Community College. In this course, both student inmates and community college students designed a service learning project.
The inmates decided they wanted a more formal GED graduation within the prison, and they wanted Londer Learning Center, a community-based GED program for ex-offenders, to be able to have caps and gowns, too. All students worked together to design a successful marketing campaign.
"I am often blown away by the hard work I get when assigning community service projects in Chemeketa's College Inside courses,” said Chemeketa College Inside instructor Michele Dishong McCormack. “I am truly inspired that the students raised more than $1,000 in less than 6 weeks to make sure that GED graduates at OSCI and the Londer Learning Center have caps and gowns for their graduation ceremonies."
The inmates will wear these gowns at their OSCI GED graduation on March 21. During the graduation ceremony, they will formally present the project to Londer Learning Center staff.
Londer Learning Center students will wear the gowns at their 2013 GED Graduation scheduled for June 13, 2013 at the Multnomah Building, 501 SE Hawthorne.