Students: From Recruitment To Alumni

Tips for Recruiting and Selecting Students

Student Recruitment: Click HERE for our main website page, which includes basic info for students who are considering taking an Inside-Out class.

You can access material HERE: selecting students. The following provides some examples:

  • Christina Rivers of DePaul University requires applications for outside students and inside students. She also follows up with interview questions which she tailors to specific courses.

  • Ann Green and Elizabeth Linehan from St. Joseph's University also require an application and a follow-up interview, but only for outside students. At their correctional facility, they choose to rely on the social worker to select appropriate students. 

  • Amy Shuster, a philosophy professor from Denison University, uses a Course Interest Form, which includes essay questions for prospective students. She also has provided an example of a Prison Recruitment Session outline she uses to select inside students from SCI-Lancaster in OH.

  • Jennifer Cobbina from Michigan State uses Pre-Course Surveys for both inside and outside students. 

FAQs about Selecting Students

Can individuals with sexual offense convictions take part in Inside-Out classes? 

There is no longer a program-wide rule that prohibits those with sexual offenses on their records from participating in these classes.  However, we would recommend that individuals be considered on a case-by-case basis.  At the same time, there could be a restriction based on prison/jail rules and/or by the participating college/university, so it would be important to know that information ahead of time.

After the Course is Over

  • Data Collection on Student Alumni. We encourage former inside and outside students to stay in contact with The Inside-Out Center for two reasons: First, we want to lay the groundwork for future research and evaluation of the program's impact. Second, collecting this information will make it easier if instructors and/or former students want to organize alumni activities at the local, national, or international level. There are two methods by which instructors can collect contact information. 

    • Option #1: Pass out a sign-up list in your class that requests contact information from both inside and outside students including: full name, permanent email address (i.e. Gmail, etc.), permanent mailing address (optional), university/college, correctional institution, name of instructor who taught course, semester/year of the Inside-Out class. In light of FERPA regulations, it is advisable that you get signed permission to collect this information. Information can be sent to: dkrueger@temple.edu.

    • Option #2: Invite students to submit their own info via this Google form (Links to an external site.), which can also be found on the "Students (Links to an external site.)" page of the Inside-Out website. This flyer template (forthcoming) may be useful to distribute to students on one of the final days of class. 

    • Instructors should use their discretion about which method is best and most appropriate to the situation.