Dear friends,
As many of you know, what is now Mount Tamalpais College started in 1996 as an extension site of Patten College. In 2026, we will celebrate—with amazement and gratitude—the thirtieth anniversary of the College.
In its very first semester, the program offered two classes. By spring of 1999, the first semester I came into San Quentin to teach a class, about 100 students were enrolled in ten classes. Most were still writing their assignments with pencil; pens were scarce. Students scrounged together paper from clerical jobs or quarterly packages, and textbooks were donated by publishers or the occasional bookstore.
Gang culture and the constant threat of violence dominated the lives of students. In the classroom, students generally engaged across racial lines, but on the yard, talking, playing basketball, sharing food, or even shaking hands with someone of a different race, could get a student hurt or killed.
After I began leading the program in 2000, our first major purchase was an industrial strength pencil sharpener. The first time we bought pocket dictionaries for the entire student body was a joyous occasion. Pocket calculators were a miracle. Every object brought into the prison was physically inspected by staff. Maps, considered escape paraphernalia, were categorically prohibited. Books could be banned simply because of their title or cover.
A teacher talking to a student one-on-one out of earshot of prison staff was viewed with deep suspicion; students were routinely placed in solitary or transferred out of the prison based on accusations of “overfamiliarity.” Lockdowns, generally due to violence, were frequent and often lasted for weeks. Violence within or between racial groups typically led to those entire groups being locked down; we routinely arrived to class to find all students of a particular race missing. Getting through a thirteen-week semester could take six months.
While there is no single explanation for all that has changed at San Quentin since then, a few factors played a critical role. Above all, people incarcerated at San Quentin wanted it to change. In many respects, MTC is in fact the manifestation of that desire for change.
From the earliest years, students played a vital role in running the college program—organizing supplies, managing classroom space, personally delivering verbal messages and mountains of paper correspondence—all without internet access, or even a reliable mail system. It was students who recruited, mentored, and inspired each other. They did homework without tables or chairs. They looked out for program staff and faculty, de-escalated interpersonal conflicts, and through their constant studying, stood out starkly in the world of the prison.
In those days, prison staff who openly supported “rehabilitative programs” were often mocked, ostracized, and even threatened by their colleagues. Without the integrity and commitment of a handful of key allies, the college program would not have survived. Yet many initially skeptical prison staff and administrators witnessed the impact of college on individual students; over time, they watched the social climate of the entire prison start to change. The respect that those students earned from both the rest of the incarcerated community and from prison staff—as a result of their hard work and intellectual growth—eventually formed a powerful protective shield around the College that persists to this day.
Another one of the College’s superpowers has always been its all-volunteer faculty, whose intellectual brilliance and preternatural patience—in the face of delays, cancellations, scant technology, sweaty classrooms, pouring rain, and Bay Area traffic —have for decades been a powerful motivating force for students, and surely the single most stabilizing force for the College itself. From the earliest years, it was instructors who encouraged their colleagues to come in to teach; who forged the philanthropic origins of the fledgling program; and in myriad other ways catalyzed its growth.
Today, as a privately-funded, independent, accredited institution, Mount Tamalpais College is sustained by this same spirit of resilience, dedication, and belief in human potential upon which it was founded. Our thirtieth anniversary will mark a celebration of both the journey we’ve traveled and the one we now embark upon, as we enter yet another remarkable phase of growth.
We are deeply grateful for all you do to help carry MTC’s vital mission forward, and hope you will be inspired to continue generously supporting this work.
With warm wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season,
Jody Lewen
President
P.S. Please save the date for Together We Climb: MTC’s 30th Anniversary Gala on Saturday, April 18, 2026 at the Conservatory at One Sansome in San Francisco, CA!
