UI students teach in a prison for women.
By Ali Krogman
Some University of Iowa students choose to spend their Fridays locked up.
Each fall semester, students travel to the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville teaching classes to the prisoners. The trips are for the Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies practicum.
The students pair up and co-facilitate a group of 15 women in a class about healthy relationships. Rachel Williams, a UI associate professor who is in charge of the practicum, said the class discussions include communication, power and control, sexual assault, and how to recognize abuse in a relationship.
“One of the most powerful things about class is women hearing other women tell their stories,” Williams said. “They suddenly realize they’re not alone, and they help each other.”
Williams, who has worked at Mitchellville for more than 15 years, said she started taking students along with her eight years ago and the major created the practicum about five years ago.
She said her students are great at co-facilitating the classes as well as bringing empathy and attention to the women they teach.
“I would say going into prison really opens the eyes of the students, just as it does the women,” Williams said. “Women in prison have stereotypes of college students just as students stereotype women in prison.”
Williams said the curriculum was created when the practicum began and students learn it each semester before starting at the prison. The students participate in a mock prison classroom experience to rehearse what the class will highlight and prepare examples to give to the women.
“This engagement is mutual — the women in the prison helped create the curriculum as well,” Williams said. “I think students like experimental learning and not just book work. It requires a lot of creativity. I throw them against the wall and hope they stick.”
UI senior Maddie Bro, one of this semester’s practicum students, said her first experience at the prison was very positive since she felt well-prepared.
“I was filled with adrenaline because I had never been in a prison before,” Bro said. “I wasn’t too nervous because Rachel had prepared us very well and made it more of a humanizing experience.”
Bro said she has rediscovered her passion for teaching through the prison program.
“I really value the human interaction, too — not only do I have interest in talking about the information we’re teaching, I feel like we are actually helping the prisoners as well,” Bro said. “What we’re doing is pretty much changing lives, and it’s a pretty cool feeling.”
UI senior Haley Croney, who is in her second year of teaching at the prison, said her favorite part of the program has been the relationships she’s formed with the women in the institution.
“I’ve learned how strong these women are. They’ve been through so many different life experiences, and they’re still surviving,” Croney said. “To be able to know them at a deeper level is something that’s so important to me and how I’ve been able to grow relationships with the women.”
Williams said she hopes to expand the practicum and create more programs in other communities. Until then, her students will continue their trips to Mitchellville.
“This practicum is trial by fire,” Williams said. “To date, I can’t think of a single student who hasn’t been really successful.”
