KEWANEE, Ill. — The educators made their way into the white outdoor tent first, decked out in master’s regalia that provided a bit of warmth on the nippy October morning and accessorized with wide smiles. In purple robes and tassels displaying Northwestern University’s seal embossed on a metal medallion, 18 women followed, the sound of “Pomp and Circumstance” carrying across the yard of Kewanee Life Skills Re-Entry Center.
One by one, the women were cheered into the tent by professors, family and friends, each breaking rank briefly to embrace those lining the aisles who showed up on a Friday morning this month to the prison in the small northwestern Illinois city of Kewanee to see their loved ones graduate from the Northwestern Prison Education Program.
Since 2018, NU’s prison program has offered incarcerated people in Illinois who have earned a high school diploma or passed the GED a chance to learn from the school, with four educational programs available at facilities throughout the state ranging from four- to six-week college-readiness courses to a bachelor’s degree. While the program has graduated two cohorts of incarcerated men in recent years, this ceremony marked the first time incarcerated women students in the U.S. earned a bachelor’s degree from a top 10 university.
That first cohort of incarcerated women graduates traveled nearly 100 miles to Kewanee for the ceremony. The cohort included students from Logan Correctional Center, a multilevel-security state facility for women located just north of Springfield. They began the program in fall 2021, and over five years, Northwestern professors taught them social sciences, culminating in their Bachelor of Science in General Studies degrees awarded Oct. 16.
In a multi-hour ceremony that included former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, those 18 women received a plethora of praise for their hard work, dedication, drive and desire to change.
“In the history of the world, there has never been anyone like you,” Pelosi said, addressing the crowd as the ceremony’s commencement speaker. “… Go forth with the confidence of this remarkable education you have.”
With the women sitting in front of her, program founder NU philosophy professor Jennifer Lackey addressed each individually, reflecting on the hope they create along with their remarkability, care, strength and kindness.
“We rarely get to see the full consequence of what we do,” Lackey said, adding that the goals the women could achieve as a result of the NU degree are unforeseeable and infinite. “… You don’t know now what all of this will become, but that is the point.”
Those dreams were on display throughout the ceremony as the graduates went up one by one, reading speeches about what the program has meant to them and their goals outside prison: to be a teacher and tutor, to advocate for penal system reform, and to put restorative justice practices into action. Through sobs in some cases, and unwavering voices in others, each student thanked program officials, family members and loved ones, earning back cheers from the crowd.
Those cheers only intensified as the graduates walked across the stage and took their diplomas, moving toward a future many said they didn’t think was possible or figured was lost with the beginning of their incarceration. Graduate Stephanie Bonds beamed as she reached for her degree. Nine rows back, Bonds’ daughter, Jala Johnson, and granddaughter, Klover Johnson, stood with their arms in the air, cheering and yelling her name. Bonds is serving a 45-year sentence for first-degree murder, according to public records,
Johnson, 24, drove six hours from Detroit to be at the ceremony so her daughter, 3-year-old Klover, could watch her grandmother walk. Their travel was rewarded with a big hug and kiss for Klover as Bonds processed out of the tent. Bonds handed Jala Johnson her newly obtained degree and cap, telling her daughter, “That’s yours, baby.”
The ceremony was “a good moment” for Johnson, who said ahead of the event that she was excited, especially as a person whose mother was unable to see her graduate.
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“You expect your mom to come to your graduation and she’s not able to, but you have the opportunity to go to hers,” Johnson said. “In some ways, it’s an accomplishment on both ends.”
For Bonds, who dreams of working in psychology and continuing her education, graduation was equal parts celebratory and bittersweet. The graduation marks the end of the program for her, and she wonders what’s next on the path toward her aspirations.
“I feel a step closer, (but) I’m wondering how I can reach that goal,” Bonds said, adding that she still looks forward to putting her degree to use. “While I’m in(carcerated), I plan on using the knowledge I’ve gained.”
Johnson interjected with an “I’m so proud of you” for her mom, bringing attention back to the day’s accomplishment: her mother’s degree.
“My mom deserves this. She deserves everything that’s coming to her in the most positive way there is,” Johnson said. “I don’t want that to go unnoticed.”