“My personal dream is to see you studying here someday. That will be a major accomplishment," Ben-Gurion University of the Negev President Prof. Rivka Carmi said at the closing ceremony of the third cycle of the “Windows onto Dreams on Campus" program last week. The program brought 10 prisoners from the local prison to campus one day a week for 15 weeks to participate in courses on a variety of topics such as Intro to Medicine, Robotics, Geography, Physics, and Philosophy taught by BGU students and faculty.
“I hope that the special experience you had here will indeed become an opening to fulfill your dreams and begin a new chapter," Carmi said, “There is a human being behind the stigma and every human being is worthwhile. I am happy to be fanning that spark inside you."
Above left to right: Major-General Asher Shriki, Vered Sarusi Katz, Prof. Rivka Carmi and Lieutenant-General Ofra Klinger
The world of academia can often seem strange and uncomfortable for the prisoners, a place to which they seemingly do not belong. Yet academia is also often the admittance ticket to meaningful participation in society. The prisoners learn through the project that they can think and dream in ways that they have not allowed themselves to do until now. Many of the participating prisoners said the project made them believe that they were capable of studying for an academic degree and they expressed a genuine interest in academic study for themselves and their families.
A.,37, an addict who is serving his seventh prison term, found his life turned around through the program. Admitting that he did not really want to overcome his addiction before, he has discovered a newfound self-respect through the program he said at the ceremony. He plans to become a substance abuse counselor upon his release.
The program is a joint initiative between BGU's Community Action Department headed by Vered Sarusi Katz and the Israel Prison Service (IPS).
The only program of its kind in the country, the Prison Service was so proud of it that they submitted it for a prize from the International Corrections & Prisons Association.
Lieutenant-General Ofra Klinger, commander of the Israel Prison Service, and Southern District Commander Major-General Asher Shriki represented the IPS at the ceremony.
