Announcements

We’re pleased to share our latest Annual Report, which looks back on a remarkable 2022-2023 academic year. 

In addition to serving as a snapshot of our 2022 finances and recognizing the college’s many supporters, the report highlights exciting new developments in our computer lab and information technology, features on student-led research and new support services, and a photo essay profiling dozens of MTC alumni who are living full and meaningful lives on the outside. 

We hope the report offers you a substantive glimpse into the brilliance, productivity, and generosity of the Mount Tamalpais College community, and allows you to imagine the vast potential landscape of what’s next for our college at San Quentin. 

Read the report here. 

This August MTC welcomed the newest Program Clerk to our team, Charles Crowe. Crowe has been an MTC student for the last four years and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Sciences. Before starting as a Program Clerk with MTC, Crowe worked as a Senior Editor and Staff Writer with San Quentin News where he wrote stories about the importance of the language used to humanize incarcerated people and grandparenting from prison. He is still involved with San Quentin News when he’s not busy assisting MTC.

Crowe calls himself a “lifetime learner” and has been teaching himself Spanish for the last 10 years by reading various grammar and vocabulary books and practice workbooks. It’s no surprise that the Spanish classes he’s taken with MTC have been his favorite. This fall semester, he is a Teaching Assistant for Spanish 101. Crowe is an advocate for the transformative power of education. He firmly believes in the profound impact it can have on an individual’s life, both in and out of prison. Crowe is driven by the belief that education can be a catalyst for positive change, not only for personal growth but also contributing to reducing recidivism rates. 

Crowe and the other MTC Program Clerk, Carl Raybon, support the day-to-day functioning of our college inside San Quentin to ensure everything runs smoothly. Some of their responsibilities include assisting with student registration and enrollment each semester, tracking student requests, and distributing student mailings. A large portion of their daily work is ensuring that faculty have all the materials they need for each class. Because we are limited to what we can bring in and out of the prison, a large portion of our Program Clerk’s role is to photocopy course readings and assemble course boxes, which is where our faculty keep all the materials needed for their class. Our college program would not be able to run as smoothly as it does without our Program Clerks. 

Welcome to the team, Crowe!

Last semester, Mount Tamalpais College created a Computer Lab for its students inside San Quentin State Prison. The lab is in Education’s B­ building, a field house-type structure with a distinctive red roof that is behind a gate inside of the gate that separates Education from the yard.

In February 2023, MTC loaned its English 204 students their own personal laptops complete with a mouse, charger, and backpack as a carrying case. This was the first time students had been granted access to a personal laptop in their cells. 

“Surprise!” our English 204 instructor Leasa Graves said as Amy Brunson, Director of Library Services and Educational Technology for MTC, came through the door with Dell laptops. Each laptop came in a cloth backpack, which we were being given for the semester. After a few technical and logistical delays, this was MTC’s first delivery of 12 laptops. 

Amy talked to us about several aspects of how to use the laptops now and as the range of available information expands. At one point, she told us, “You’re not going to get in trouble if it breaks.” This statement came in that classic MTC way, with understanding and care for our position as prisoners who have a fear of getting into trouble for anything that goes wrong.

This is just a reality of being a student inside a prison. I immediately thought about being “pulled over” (stopped by a correctional officer, put up against a wall, and searched) and questioned about where the hell I got a backpack and laptop from. Years in prison ingrains that kind of fear in you even when a positive development occurs.

Amy reminds us of the value of this access. “(Technology) is just a really important piece of functioning as a human being in this day and age,” she said. It is extremely important to have access, leave here and succeed, and fulfill educational goals. Technology opens up a whole world of information…than you would have known otherwise.”

A prison is a place where some people have never used a computer or an iPhone. Some have never even used flip phones, which for those who do not know, were a thing 15 years ago. So, yeah, this is big.

For me, the happiness and joy and humanity of feeling like a normal student and person is unmistakable. How it felt to be on a laptop doing my homework in that A-4 classroom in the Education building on the Lower Yard at San Quentin, then anywhere else I wanted, was what people call surreal. This all means so much to a life-long learner and dedicated writer. I am so grateful.

At the same time, MTC has only helped to feed and develop my critical thinking and inquisitiveness. As I questioned the system within myself, I thought, “This positivity is meager, it is only a reflection of the depth of the deprivation of my humanity by the system that does not care about me, that possession of an electronic device only feels like having humanity again.”

With the Computer lab, MTC has provided a space for students to prepare for life after being released, and to get simple life skills that the prison system does not provide such as looking up information, which can lead to being able to do basic tasks like online banking and using an Uber.

Independence for us means being able to do these things without having to ask a family member for help to do it. These skills represent self-sufficiency and pride in managing one’s own life.

I decided to interview Amy Brunson, MTC’s Director of Library Services and Educational Technology, on the Computer Lab, the Laptop Program, us, and herself.

In my experience in this place, it does not get better than that.

In June of 2023, MTC began partnering with San Quentin TV (SQTV) to provide educational programming on the televisions in San Quentin. The idea arose from student requests during COVID lockdowns. Students were eager to find ways to continue learning and connecting with the college when classes were canceled, and television programming seemed like a good opportunity to allow for this continued learning. The programming is also not limited to just MTC students; Correctional Officers and non-students can watch the videos on any of the many TVs throughout the prison. 

There are 15 different themes, each of which is presented in partnership with another organization or local business. Themes last for anywhere between three and six weeks, and include Yoga with the Mandela Yoga Project, Business Ethics with San Francisco State University’s Center for Ethical And Sustainable Business, On Writing with Green Apple Books, and Afrofuturism and Ancient Egypt with UC Berkeley. 

Our hope is that this partnership with SQTV will help create a wider college culture that extends beyond the Education Building in San Quentin. TVs are found throughout the housing units, which make up a substantial portion of the prison and are an area we have extremely limited access to. We believe this programming is a way to foster educational discussions beyond our “campus” and allow students and other individuals at San Quentin to have access to educational material and it will spur engaged conversations.

The current partnership between MTC and SQTV will go until March 2024, at which point we will host a discussion forum with students to learn what they thought of the programming. We will discuss how they engaged with the programs, if there was a theme they wanted more content on, if there are themes they are interested in that we did not include, and if there is anything about the program they want to change. We are looking forward to hearing their feedback and hopefully continuing to provide educational programming in partnership with SQTV.

This is where the wider MTC community comes in: if there are any models of successful educational TV programs you have seen that you would like to bring to our attention, please reach out! We’d also love to know if you have any open-source or open-access materials you would like to share with us. Please email our Dean of Academic Administration, Nandita Dinesh, at ndinesh@mttamcollege.edu.

From instructors to TAs, tutors to research assistants, it takes a remarkable and generous community to provide a world-class education to our students. We’re currently seeking volunteers to serve as faculty at Mount Tamalpais College in fall of 2022. Join us to be part of a college unlike any other in the U.S — an independent, accredited Liberal Arts college inside San Quentin state prison. 

There are a variety of roles for educators at Mount Tamalpais College. For all of these roles, we seek individuals who are committed to our mission and to working with diverse communities. All faculty are required to have some teaching or tutoring experience, and credit course faculty also must have a graduate degree—ideally a PhD—in a relevant discipline. People who have been directly impacted by incarceration, or who reflect the cultural, ethnic, socio-economic, and racial diversity of our student body are especially encouraged to apply.

You can learn more about the various roles and teaching opportunities here, and submit your application at the links below. We will start reviewing applications on May 31, 2022. While we will still accept applications past the deadline, applications received by the deadline will be prioritized.

Application to teach or tutor in STEM

Application to teach or tutor in Writing, Social Sciences, and Humanities

In May 2021 the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, agreed to grant Mount Tamalpais College the opportunity to offer students the first computer lab for the only independently accredited liberal arts college in the nation that is located in a prison. 

The lab, designed to accommodate 25 students, seats two to three students at elongated tables — socially distanced at 6 feet. In the classroom, students scurry around waiting for Dell computers to come out of the secured storage space. They then log in with their IDs and passwords. All currently enrolled students have full access to the computer lab on a drop-in basis during its open hours. 

 On a recent visit to the lab, students returned from the day before to access works they started the previous day. Like the library at UC Berkeley or a study hall in USC’s Doheny Library, the lab is very busy.

Informed students assisted new users and worked on essays and presentations — on topics from ecology to Sophocles, to MLK’s “I Have a Dream.” Others prepared rough drafts of poetry, songs, or works that more extensively relate to their aspiring goal of becoming published authors. The room bustled with academia.

Arthur Jackson, a Mount Tamalpais College clerk, was busy helping the lab get open. “The Lab attracts new students — people incarcerated for a long time who are excited because they now practice skills which are transferable to the real world,” said Jackson.

Jackson spoke of an older resident of San Quentin—a single letter man, people who came to prison before August of 2009. Now CDCR is using two letters for people’s identification status. They started with A00000, they are now on CZ0000. “The guy told me this is what rehabilitation should be. Expecting to return to our communities, we can now be more productive because Mount Tamalpais College equips us with new skills.”

He surveyed the classroom. “Look at them. Typing to meet deadlines just like at a real university. With all the camaraderie of the volunteer professors and teachers who provide interconnectivity with inmates, Mt Tam is as diverse as UC Berkeley,” said Jackson.

Carlos Drouaillet, a TA for the lab exclaimed, “Three months ago, we had nothing in relation to computers. During the pandemic, we had to write out our homework for correspondence courses in dark cells, usually having to re-write three or four times in our cells.”

The computers provide basic programs pre-installed on the Dells include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and MS OneNote. There is no internet access, however, there is limited intranet access to whitelisted sites, and Mount Tamalpais College is working to get more sites whitelisted so that students will be able to do research.

Ethan Annis, Anila Yadavalli, Amy Jamgochian, Kirsten Pickering, and Newton Xie all contributed to this project, which took two years to come to fruition. From deciding the model of computers, getting them inside of the facility, where to put them, what programs to put on them, etc. etc. The agreement with the warden was a simpler and more efficient process.

Annis, Librarian and Technology Specialist at Dominican College, supported Amy Jamgochian in the negotiations with CDCR and San Quentin about all the particularities of the computer lab and helped create the Letter of Understanding between the College and San Quentin. Volunteer instructor Xie designed the curriculum for the computer lab’s literacy and orientation program, offering students a five-module program before they begin to use the laptops.

Amy Brunson, the college’s new Director of Library Services and Educational Technology, looks forward to maximizing the college’s computer use and is planning the expansion of technical services at Mt. Tam College. Priya Kandaswamy, the Academic Program Director for MTC who also teaches Introduction to Ethnic Studies, said, “It’s something we’ve tried to do for a long time and we are very excited it’s happening.” 

Observations of the lab do not happen without hearing the name Kirsten Pickering. Pickering, who is the Research and Program Fellow at Mount Tamalpais College, instructs the classroom, “Anyone who needs to pick up printing can come with me to the printing station.”

Two men follow her out of classroom B-4 to the administrative hub where print requests are delivered. She also notes there will be a final pick-up of printed materials at 7:30 p.m., approximately 15 minutes before all students must return to their cells.

As the sunset bounces off the actual Mount Tamalpais located outside of San Quentin and radiates into the roof-lined windows, Rudy Moralez tries to improve his academic experience. “The lab helps with my grammar and spelling and corrects my writing fragments,” he says. “I believe it will help my grades improve.” 

Pickering says San Quentin’s administration, especially Warden Ron Broomfield, were supportive in coordinating the concerns of CDCR and the college. Broomfield said he envisions the day when a large proportion of prisoners, those dedicated to reformative education and rehabilitation will possess their own laptop computers.

“This ‘child’ has many parents; for years Jody Lewen wanted technology for our students because that’s how college works on the outside,” said Pickering. 

Pickering believes challenges operating the lab include expediting the current replacement time for broken computers and the synchronization of laptops to San Quentin’s intranet. “We could easily have more computers from donations, but turnaround time for licensing through CDCR is lengthy,” said Pickering.

Mount Tamalpais College plans to implement the same learning management system that the University of California education system uses.

This system, called Canvas, allows remote lecturers and programs that could increase availability to all students while protecting against future lockdowns. 

Pickering spoke of the Canvas system, “Where our vision is to get every student a laptop for equal access, Canvas gives us the same quality as the UC system. CDCR has worked to modify the Canvas program to fit within their specifications…We should incorporate Canvas shortly.”

Pickering spoke of the Peer-to-Peer Computer Lab Assistants who trained with her and STEM Coordinator Anila Yadavalli prior to the installation of the lab. “Quincy, Carlos, Daniel, Ron, Rob, Rufael, C.J. and Rodney were an instrumental part of getting this off the ground.” She added the assistants had to complete rigorous interviews and an orientation that ensured consistency and equal access to all Mount Tamalpais College students.

James Jenkins, who has been incarcerated for 31 years said, “The computer lab is God sent to the extent it enhances our computer and typing skills. It allows me to learn Excel and other apps.

Because of the lab, I am able to do all of my papers, mid-terms and homework here in our classroom. Without this place, I would not be around other motivated peers who share the same hopes and dreams. I would most likely be in my 4 x 8 cell, instead of gaining a whole new outlook on society. Mt Tam has enlightened my behavior towards others.”

Currently 300 other Mt. Tam. students share Jenkins’ vision. Now they can print their visions instead of writing them three to four times. (Read more about MTC computer lab.)

Photo Courtesy of San Quentin News

Please join us to warmly welcome Michael Howe, the new Chief Advancement Officer at Mount Tamalpais College.

Michael, who goes by Mike, is most passionate around issues associated with social justice. His involvement with higher education in prison began in the 1970s when, as Dean of the College of Professional Studies at the University of San Francisco, he founded, administered and taught in the Prison Project at both San Quentin and Susanville prisons. The program provided a baccalaureate program for students at both prisons graduating inmates from both institutions. 

Most recently, Mike served as a Senior Associate at Partnership Resources Group. Between 2013 and 2018 he was the Executive Director of the RP Group (Research & Planning Group for California Community Colleges). From 2006 to 2013 he served as the Chair of the National Task Force on Community Leadership at Stanford University, and in that role helped found CFLeads, the national organization that supports community foundations focused on developing and nurturing community leadership. From 1993 to 2006 Michael was President of the East Bay Community Foundation, leading the organization through a period of unprecedented growth. His earlier experiences include being the Senior Education Program Officer and Director of Evaluation at the Marin Community Foundation (1986 to 1993) and as Professor and founding Dean of the College of Professional Studies at the University of San Francisco (1968-1980).

Beyond his senior leadership positions and capital fundraising work, he has served on many nonprofit boards. He worked closely with clients through Howe & Associates (H&A) an education and organizational leadership firm. This work included building internal and external capacity around issues such as organizational sustainability, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), community leadership, and executive and leadership transitions. Former clients include the Energy Foundation, Community Foundation of South Alabama, Community Foundation of Western Nevada, Truckee Tahoe Community Foundation, People’s Republic of China – Ministry of Education, Clorox Corporation, Tahoe Fund, Dryers Corporation, and a host of family foundations.

Mike attended the College of San Mateo where he received his AA Degree, transferred to the University of San Francisco where he received his BA in Sociology, he then was accepted at the University of California and received his MA and ABD in Sociology.

We are thrilled to have Mike’s depth of experience, commitment, and relationships in the field on our team at MTC, and to be part of his return to prison higher education after decades of rich experience and a proven track record for helping organizations grow and deepen their impact.

To contact Mike, please reach out at mhowe@mttamcollege.org.