Meet Mount Tamalpais College: the US' First Independent Accredited Liberal Arts College in a State Prison
MEETING FOR THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 19, 2022
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Meet Mount Tamalpais College: the US' First Independent Accredited Liberal Arts College in a State Prison
Speaker: Corey McNeil and Jody Lewen
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time. Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
To properly attend this meeting, please:
Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
Complete the attendance survey.
Everyone is also encouraged to leave a comment in the Disqus section at the bottom of the page.
Message from our President
Dear fellow members,
'Tis the Season!
We're already halfway through the Rotary year, and although making a New Year's Resolution can be a little premature, I'd like to suggest an earlier resolution for this coming month - Take a break and have fun with us!
As Rotarians, we understand the importance of contributing time, talent, and resources to making an impact. But I sometimes wonder whether we've forgotten how to enjoy ourselves while giving.
Although our club is entirely online, it is still a great place to have fun and make friends. Personally, committee work and our Coffee with a Rotarian program are two of my favorite ways to get to know my fellow club members while being productive and making a difference.
If you, like me, are interested in increasing our level of participation, take every opportunity to reach out to our members to set up a chat. Additionally, mark your calendars for our Annual Sister Club Holiday Party on December 18th, an event in collaboration with the Rotary E-Club of Hawaii! Did you know this is our third consecutive gathering? This means that we can officially call this holiday party a club tradition. It all began with the goal of strengthening our club's connection with our twin club in Hawaii, and look where we are today!
As we count down the days till 2023 and turn the page to a new year, it's hard not to think about the challenges we've faced and be thankful for each of you and your support over the past year. A big thank you to everyone who stepped in and helped, donated, or just showed up. The fruits of our hard work, resilience, and membership will definitely enable us to carry out impactful initiatives and projects.
I hope you all have a very Happy Holiday Season and wish you all the best for the New Year! Take time to relax and enjoy the festivities!
I look forward to all the good things we'll continue to do in 2023.
Yours in Service,
Angelica Marotta, PhD
President 2022-2023 Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
Rotary International District 5170
WEEKLY FUNNY WITH SHAGS
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin!
The Confessional
An Irishman goes into the confessional box after years of being away from the Church. There's a fully equipped bar with Guinness on tap. On the other wall is a dazzling array of the finest cigars and chocolates.
Then the priest comes in. "Father, forgive me, for it's been a very long time since I've been to confession, but I must first admit that the confessional box is much more inviting than it used to be."
The priest replies, "Get out. You're on my side."
INSPIRATION
Every week we share a short video highlighting innovation, education, entrepreneurship, or whatever we think might inspire you to see the world in new ways.
The holidays at the end of the year are moments to treasure what is important to us. This short film written and directed by Phil Beastall is called "Love is a Gift," and we hope that all the members of our club and all their family and friends will have the gift of treasuring the blessings this season.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
How are Candy Canes Made?
Let's find out!
SERVICE REPORT
Tell us about service you’ve done recently in your community.
Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
HAPPY DOLLARS: Do Good by Sharing Something Good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it’s appropriate!)
Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!
This section is usually updated in the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Rory Olsen made a $20 donation.
It has been a typical pre-Christmas week.
PROGRAM: Meet Mount Tamalpais College: the US' First Independent Accredited Liberal Arts College in a State Prison
SPEAKER: Corey McNeil and Jody Lewen
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub nor Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
Our speakers this week will offer an introduction to the work of Mount Tamalpais College, an independent liberal arts college located in San Quentin State Prison. They will describe the programs MTC operates and the impact they have on their program participants.
Corey McNeil has been a student since 2011 and joined the staff of Mount Tamalpais College as a program clerk in 2017. After being released in 2021, he became the college's Alumni Affairs Associate. He is currently enrolled at Laney College, taking computer classes. In the spring, he
will transfer to San Francisco State University, where he will study sociology or computer science.
Education for Corey has been a self-esteem builder and has had a redemptive value. He is looking forward to seeing with confidence how his life will contribute to his family, community, and society. He is incredibly thankful to the staff and faculty members of Mount Tamalpais College for providing the access to higher education where he can continue to grow his skills and talents.
Jody Lewen is President of Mount Tamalpais College at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California. Mount Tamalpais College (MTC) provides a general education associate of arts degree and intensive college preparatory courses to over 300 people incarcerated at San Quentin. It also provides training and support to other higher education in prison programs across the country, advocating for the values of high academic quality and inclusivity, while serving as a resource to policymakers, practitioners, and academic and correctional administrators.
Dr. Lewen received her bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University in modern European history; her master's degree from the Freie Universität, Berlin in comparative literature and philosophy; and her PhD in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley. She was the recipient in 2006 of the Peter E. Haas Public Service Award from the University of California, Berkeley, which recognizes alumni of UC Berkeley who have made significant voluntary contributions to the betterment of society. In 2016, MTC (then the Prison University Project) received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama. In 2018, Jody was named a Frederick Douglass 200 awardee, which honored those whose modern-day work best embodies Douglass' legacy of social change.
Members and guests, please welcome Corey McNeil and Dr. Jody Lewen!
To learn more, go to:
https://www.mttamcollege.org
This June, MTC was beyond thrilled to celebrate their first commencement ceremony since before the pandemic, and since MTC achieved independent accreditation. Read about the graduation here: https://prisonjournalismproject.org/2022/08/08/nations-first-standalone-prison-campus-celebrates-graduation/
UPCOMING PROGRAM RECORDING SCHEDULE
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
THE ATTENDANCE SURVEY
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.
We have a very short attendance survey below for you to fill out to record your attendance.
Visiting Rotarians, this is how you can get an email receipt to pass along to your club’s secretary as proof that you’ve attended our meeting if you need it for makeups.
Non-Rotarian Guests, we would love to see who is dropping by our meetings! This part is optional for you. If you think you may want to join our eClub at some point in the future, we would strongly recommend you fill out the attendance form as it will improve your chances of success for your membership application.
For all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment in our comments area below. Tell us how you enjoyed the program. Ask this week’s speaker any questions you might have. Or just stop by and say hello and tell us where you’re from!
Important: Once you submit the Attendance Survey below, please make sure you see the confirmation message. If you get an error message instead, please try the 'submit' button again, and if that doesn't work, please refresh the page and fill out the form again. Thanks!
