An SLCL alumna is helping improve access to higher education in prisons with support from a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Paméla Cappas-Toro (PhD, ’13, Spanish) received the grant as principal investigator at the University of Utah. The funding will support a training lab that will help establish student centers within prison-based higher education programs.
The initiative builds on Cappas-Toro’s work with the Utah Prison Education Project, where incarcerated students serve as peer-led education advocates. Through training in areas including pedagogy, disability studies, and English language learning, participants help fellow students navigate educational pathways while gaining professional experience themselves.
The model has already served about 300 incarcerated women and is believed to be the first of its kind. Mellon Foundation officials hope to expand the approach nationally, using incarcerated student leaders to bring educational resources and support services to prison education programs across the country.
Cappas-Toro credited her time at U of I with developing her commitment to community-engaged work and intentional mentorship.
“Being a part of a stellar program [like the Education Justice Project at Illinois] that teaches students to provide support for incarcerated learners in a way that is thoughtful and ethical had a huge impact on me,” she said. “It also showed me the value of doing this work with others. You cannot do it alone. It was always about collaboration in every space I occupied at Illinois.”