Today@Sam Article

COCJ Students Present at Windham School District's College and Career Day

July 30, 2025
SHSU Media Contact: Campbell Atkins

By Arina Garcia 

This past spring, students from the Sam Houston State University College of Criminal Justice (COCJ) delivered presentations for Windham School District’s College and Career Day as part of an Academic Community Engagement (ACE) course. Windham provides educational programming for eligible individuals currently incarcerated in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s correctional facilities.

Students in Miltonette Craig’s ACE course visited the Estelle and Holliday campuses in Huntsville, where they toured the facilities and guided Windham students through the process of pursuing higher education while providing keys to academic success.

“We were able to use our college experience and share information with people who likely did not know where to start on their path to higher education,” said criminal justice student Solei Villalon. “One man even told us that he was going to pass the information to his family so that his kids could look into some of the organizations we provided.”

In addition to the presentations, COCJ students prepared and distributed a brochure containing key points and instructions on how to access an online repository of resources, including scholarship opportunities for individuals with incarceration histories and their families.

“Incarceration is typically a generational cycle and is hard to break away from,” Villalon said. “This is why there are also foundations, like Pitzer Family Education Foundation, that offer scholarships and other financial aid to children whose parents are incarcerated.”

Following the presentations, students were tasked with capturing the personal and professional impact of the project in a reflection paper.

“Student feedback on the project was overwhelmingly positive,” Craig said. “Their reflections were quite profound, and they described their experiences as meaningful, rewarding and transformative.”

For many students, this was their first time in a correctional facility, which offered a unique opportunity to see the inner workings of reentry-focused programming.

The project was designed to help students understand the application of criminal justice policy while recognizing the importance of restorative justice and second chances.

“I hope that my students saw this project as both personally and professionally fulfilling, as they could see their hard work in action and also understand firsthand how criminal justice legislation and policy are carried out in the community,” Craig said. “I truly hope they will continue to pursue educational opportunities that connect them to the community.”

While the presentations were crafted for Windham, Villalon noted that the information they shared could benefit anyone interested in continuing their education.

“I am a first-generation student, and our presentation could have helped me when I began my college career because I did not know where to start,” Villalon said.

Ultimately, the project gave COCJ students a platform to apply their knowledge in a way that could positively impact the lives of people in their communities.

“I was drawn to criminal justice because I want to make a difference for people,” Villalon said. “This project was a great way for us to use our experience and potentially help someone, either the individual in incarceration or their family members.”

Academic Community Engagement (ACE) is a teaching method that combines community engagement with academic instruction. This pedagogy encourages students to use the skills, knowledge and dispositions learned in the classroom to collaborate with community partners to contribute to the public good. SHSU offers hundreds of ACE courses within an academic year.

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