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From Two Worlds: Tenn. College Students And Inmates Share Classroom, Friendship

Lipscomb University

In 2007, Lipscomb University in Nashville began the Lipscomb Initiative for Education, or LIFE Program. The program provides college courses for the inmates at the Tennessee Prison For Women, but it also gives traditional college students the chance to travel to the prison each week to take classes with the inmates.

Last year, nine of the prisoners received their associate’s degrees. Now some of those women are working toward their bachelor’s degrees. But the impact of the LIFE program goes beyond a piece of paper to hang on the wall.  WUOT’s Leslie Snow brings us this story about unexpected friendships and the ability to imagine life outside the walls of a prison cell.