While many Dartmouth students are spending hot summer days sunbathing by the docks, others are dedicating their free time to tutoring prison inmates in the Upper Valley as part of the Tucker Foundation's Prison Project.
"Part of the importance of tutoring is showing the inmates how most law-abiding citizens live," said Matt Clavel '97, the student coordinator for the Prison Project this term.
Clavel, who has been a part of the Prison Project since his freshman year, said the crimes of inmates vary, but students should not be deceived by the appearances of the prisoners.
"A lot of them are hard to recognize -- they wouldn't strike you as different," Clavel said. "I once tutored somebody who had committed murder."
He said the typical inmates tutored by Dartmouth students are white males studying for their General Education Diplomas, the equivalent of a high school degree.
Students usually visit the same inmates once or twice a week, Clavel said. Depending on the prison and the time commitment, students may tutor individual subjects or teach entire classes.
Clavel said three Vermont prisons participate in the project.
The prisons located in White River Junction and Windsor are minimum security while the Woodstock prison is a medium security prison.
According to a flyer provided by Clavel, past student projects included teaching math and English skills, leading a film discussion and viewing series and leading yoga or aerobics classes.
"I go once a week on Tuesday mornings from 9 to 11," said Isha Archer '97, a student volunteer with the Prison Project. "I may give homework and correct it and show [the inmates] where they made mistakes."
Archer teaches math to inmates in a White River Junction facility designed mainly for parolees and prisoners under house arrest, and said she enjoys interacting with the inmates.
"I like tutoring," she said. "It is so easy to get caught up in Dartmouth and forget what's happening in the community."
Archer said she became involved in the program last summer and plans to continue her involvement until graduation.