How to get into college at CCWF
Higher education is a laudable pursuit for any individual. As the old saying goes, “knowledge is power” and nowhere is that more evident than in a prison. After all, once we know better, we do better. If you are at Central California Women’s Facility and would like to enroll in college, how do you do that? What do you need to do in order to qualify for college?
The first requirement is that an individual must have a high school (HS) diploma or general education development (GED) certificate on file with the education department. If individuals do not have a GED or HS diploma and would like to earn one, they can submit a form 22 to Assistant Principal M. Quintana to explore being placed in an education classroom. If individuals earned a GED or HS diploma prior to coming to CCWF, they can submit a request to obtain their educational transcripts in order to ensure they are on file.
Once a GED or HS diploma is on file, the individual can request to be placed on a college program waiting list. CCWF has four community college programs available for the incarcerated population where individuals can earn their Associate of Arts (AA) or Associate of Science (AS) degrees: Coastline, Feather River, Lassen and Merced. Coastline, Feather River and Lassen offer correspondence courses while Merced offers face-to-face instruction four afternoon/evenings per week.
In order to be placed on a college program waiting list, interested individuals must submit a form 22 to the college program coordinator of their choice. The college coordinators for Merced are G. Fry and S. Janssen. The college coordinators for Coastline, Feather River, and Lassen are L. Fore and D. Lavagnino.
CCWF also has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) program available via Fresno State University. In order to be placed on the waiting list for this program, interested individuals must have their AA or AS degree on file and have completed the “Golden Four” classes for transfer to a California State University. The Golden Four are: statistics, critical thinking, written or oral communication and a science class with a lab component.
Additionally, Fresno State is now requiring individuals to take ethnic studies prior to matriculation, so the Golden Four now seem to be the Golden Five. Anyone meeting the requirements to be placed on the waiting list for Fresno State should submit a form 22 to L. Fore and D. Lavagnino.
Happy learning!
