ANAMOSA — Rogelio Gonzalez had permission to remove his blue graduation robe and mortarboard.
He chose not to.
“I never had such a thing,” said Gonzalez, 27. “I’m keeping mine on.”
Nine of 13 inmates who passed their GED exams graduated Wednesday in the visiting room of the Anamosa State Penitentiary.
The location of the ceremony did not detract from its importance.
“I’ve been working on getting my GED since I was 14,” said George Johnson, 27, who is serving a 10-year sentence for second-degree robbery. “It’s a step in my life toward change.”
Johnson didn’t think the tests were difficult. Making the decision to change his life was.
“It was just deciding you’re tired of being a mess-up,” he said. “Deciding you want to change your life — that’s the hard part.”
But the outcome, Warden John Fayram stressed, is worth it.
“Now you have put yourself in a better position for down the road,” Fayram said in his commencement address. “No one can ever take your GED away from you.”
About 80 inmates are enrolled in the prison’s GED program, which is taught by certified teachers from Kirkwood Community College. They also administer the test in the maximum-security facility.
Wednesday’s ceremony was the second in seven months. Before that, 30 years of the GED program had passed without formal recognition.
“They were discontinued for security reasons, but a proposal was made to have them reinstated,” said Mary Wilfer, prison education coordinator and instructor. “We try to emphasize the positive.”
Each inmate was allowed to invite two people from his approved visitor list. Curtis Watson, 20, who is serving a 10-year criminal mischief sentence, presented his tassel to his mom, Teresa Yepez of Grinnell.
“I am very, very excited,” Yepez said. “It’s such an accomplishment.”
Gonzales was reading at a second-grade level when he arrived at Anamosa in 2006 to begin serving a 100-year sentence for a second drug offense. Now he works as a clerk for prison counselors.
“If I could talk to people — it’s hard to preach because I’ve been preached to — I would say, ‘Do good,’ and ‘Stay in school,’” Gonzalez said. “Places like this do exist. It’s not a good place to be.”
Filed under: College | Tagged: GED, Kirkwood Community College
