Inside-Outside Exchange Program

In May 2014, Goshen College offered its first Inside-Out Exchange Program class with leadership and teaching by Carolyn Schrock-Shenk and Glenn Gilbert, and has offered classes during each May term since (when students just take one course for three weeks). The first course offered was Justice in Our Lives, which focused on a variety of different topics all under the umbrella of justice in society and in our personal experiences. These topics range from violence and masculinity, to crime and punishment, to restorative justice, and to nonviolence, among others. The course Borders, Boundaries and Bridges has also been offered, led by instructors Michelle Milne and Saulo Padilla. This course also focuses on a variety of topics under the umbrella of justice through examining walls, borders, boundaries, and bridges—both literal and metaphorical—and how students have experienced and perceived issues related to these barriers in their own lives.

The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program was started at Temple University in the late nineties as an educational program bringing together incarcerated men and women (inside students) and college students (outside students) into a common classroom within the walls of a prison or jail. Students study crime, justice and other social issues as peers, learning from one another and building relationships across societal barriers.

Aside from being taught within a correctional facility and between students on the inside and out, Inside-Out courses also depend on teaching and learning through more experiential methods. Instructors facilitate the group in a variety of exercises, games, discussions, storytelling, and other activities that encourage students to interact with one another and learn from one another.

Read more about prior classes here:

• Goshen College leads classes at Elkhart County jail as part of Inside-Out program (South Bend Tribune – June 3, 2019)
• Goshen College May Term Breaks Down Barriers (Good of Goshen)
• In jail, students from different backgrounds build bridges (June 3, 2015)
• Goshen College students take an inside-out approach to justice in jail (June 2, 2014)