When I started running the Tucker Foundation’s Prison Project at the beginning of my sophomore year, I was going to the women’s prison in Windsor, VT alone. By the end of that fall, I had successfully recruited one freshman to join me on my weekly visits. We started to get to know the women, discovering their intense love for their children and families, and hearing stories of their drug addictions, and the sexual and physical abuse many of them endured as children or young adults. We also discovered their passion for laughter, writing poetry, crocheting, and supporting one another.

By my junior year, our volunteer base had expanded to include about seven students. That fall, we ran a business class at the prison and sold crocheted headbands during the winter in a few local stores. The women reflected their deep concern for children and families when they voted unanimously to have the proceeds donated to the Upper Valley Haven. Prison Project began to expand: we formed poetry groups, dance classes, and crochet workshops; played volleyball, and filmed over 50 women reading bedtime stories to their children. In the spring of 2008, Prison Project, representing Dartmouth, was nominated for and won a state service award. These past three terms we have had a record number of volunteers, to the point that we can’t even accommodate all of them during our weekly visits.

Prison Project has really shaped my Dartmouth experience, informing the way I interact with people, create my art, and choose to live. Initially, as a Studio Art major, I thought that the work I was doing was solely about the women in prison. These past two terms, however, I’ve come to realize that I make “art” to communicate feelings. My pieces are an expression of how I relate to the women in the prison, and how I have slowly come to acknowledge my depression. In each piece, nonetheless, there is hope despite the darkness, which is open for the viewer to interpret.

After my four years at Dartmouth, I finally realized that you should just do what you want. If you have a passion, follow it vehemently; immerse yourself in it. If you’re not sure what you’re passionate about or what makes you happy, try everything with all of your heart and explore. The opportunities at Dartmouth are boundless. The College can sometimes be restrictive, but see these moments as catalysts for creative action. Be here, experience Dartmouth, question it, love it, hate it, but ABOVE ALL, leave it in a better state than when you first set foot on campus. Speak up and do what you want, and what you think is right—it probably is, and eventually people will hear you. I can’t imagine my life without Dartmouth and everything it has given me. I hope that every student feels this way upon graduation and then goes above and beyond their greatest dreams with confident determination.