Nearly five years ago, much like the legendary Captain Kirk from “Star Trek,” I too came to explore a “Strange New World.” It was not a distant planet, though sometimes it seemed like it was, but college in prison. As I started classes at 53 years of age, to say that I was nervous and that I felt like an alien was an understatement. I thought, “What was I thinking, signing up for this?” I graduated high school in 1985 and dropped out of college in 1987. I have not been back to school since. I thought that I did not belong here. 

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

As I pondered my perceived inadequacies, I thought about how Calvin University bravely went where no university has gone before – Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility. 

Calvin’s efforts to bring an education program to Handlon led me to the conclusion that if people like Todd Cioffi and the rest of the Calvin Prison Initiative (CPI) crew can have such faith in men like me, maybe a little faith in myself was called for. So, I defeated my “cling-ons,” all that negative self-talk that I allowed to impede my voyage. I lowered my shields and set off to explore this weird alien landscape of post-secondary education in prison. 

I encountered many new concepts and ideas that I hadn’t considered before. I was exposed to other cultures, other religions and other points of view. I made friends with people that, before my encounter with Calvin, I wouldn’t have condescended to even speak to. My experience with Calvin made me realize that I was no better than anyone else –– or no worse. I learned that people could disagree without coming to blows! I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing.

Without CPI, I don’t think I would have ever figured out how to be a man. When I was arrested, I was 48 years old and stuck in adolescence. CPI gave me the tools to be an adult. These tools include the ability to be open-minded, to consider someone else’s point of view and, most importantly, to understand that it is possible that I and my long held beliefs may not be correct.

Through understanding that others may have a different and valid point of view, I learned teamwork. Being part of the CPI crew has been experientially and intellectually enlightening. Working as part of a team was never part of my social repertoire until Calvin taught me how. Our degree is in Faith and Community Leadership which means that to be a leader in the community, we must serve the community. The ability to put our own agendas aside and work with others to benefit the community is one of the core values CPI instilled in all of us in this program. We will carry this value with us into the unknown future.

Now as my graduation date of May 10 approaches at warp speed, I find myself being apprehensive once more. I have found a home with this enterprise called CPI. I am left asking “What’s next?” The truth is that whatever lies ahead in the undiscovered country of the future, I know that I am better prepared for it because of Cioffi and all of his faculty and staff at CPI. Thank you, “Captain” Cioffi and “First Officer” Kary Bosma, for allowing me the opportunity to be part of CPI. My future is brighter because of CPI. My only hope is that I can be a light to others as CPI was a light for me. In that spirit, I will follow Jesus’s and CPI’s prime directive of love and do my best to give back a little of what was given to me.

With these things in mind, we of the fifth cohort of CPI graduates point boldly to the future and say, “Engage!”