06/26/2026
Earlier this summer, eleven extraordinary women crossed the stage to earn their associate degrees with YPEI and at the Danbury federal prison, marking our program’s fourth graduation ceremony and the FIRST for what is now the only college degree program available to any women in any federal prison in the U.S.
Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Mellon Foundation, served as the honored commencement speaker, reminding students, "What you have learned will lift up those around you, seeding hope and possibility wherever you go.” She encouraged our graduates to recognize their imperative as lifelong learners to continue sharing their stories and lifting up their communities whenever possible, invoking the words of Toni Morrison (whose writing many students explored during a seminar with Yale Professor Daphne A. Brooks), who wrote: "The function of freedom is to free someone else."
Also joining Dr. Alexander on stage to celebrate the graduates was President Jens Frederiksen, President Maurie McInnis, Executive Director Max Kenner, and UNH Professor and beloved YPEI faculty member Randall Horton, who read a poem for the occasion.
For our graduates, their families, our faculty, correctional staff, and everyone who helped make this moment possible, this was far more than a commencement ceremony. It was a celebration of perseverance, of second chances, and of the life-changing power of education, as well as a reminder that talent, curiosity, resilience, and brilliance exist everywhere; when we invest in people, extraordinary things become possible.
