Duke Divinity School Students and Incarcerated Students Learn Alongside Each Other

A group of people sitting together looking at the camera.

This is a summary of a story by Frith Gowan on Duke Divinity School.

A Duke Divinity School initiative brings Duke students and incarcerated students together to take graduate-level theology courses in a prison alongside each other, learning across race, class and carceral divisions. The initiative is called Project TURN, which stands for Transform, Unlock, ReNew.

Each class includes around 10 residents from the hosting prison, North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, and 10 students from Duke Divinity School. The courses are taught by Divinity School faculty and include Christian theology, ethics, biblical studies, Christian history, pastoral care, and Christian discipleship.

Janely Cardenas, an incarcerated student participating in the program, described how the classes have impacted her. “They have given me more confidence in who I am as a child of God, as a human of worth, of dignity,” said Cardenas. “That just because of my circumstances, that doesn’t define who I am as a human being, as a mom, as a woman, and that God can give us a purpose no matter where we’re at.”

Another incarcerated student, Barbara Stager, said she was amazed that the Duke Divinity School students were going to join them in a classroom setting.

“I wanted to learn from other people, to step outside what I was exposed to growing up,” she said. “For me, I had put God in a box. So, I wanted to learn more about how to get God out of that box.”

Incarcerated students who complete five Project TURN courses earn a Certificate of Achievement in Theological Education.

To learn more about the initiative, read the story and watch a video (“Finding Jesus in Prison”), on Duke Divinity School.