OC’s “HOPE” Program continues to grow and change lives

Oklahoma Christian University’s “HOPE” program continues to grow and make an impact on women who are incarcerated at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud, Oklahoma. 

HOPE stands for Helping Oklahoma through Prison Education. Last semester, when the program was started, Philip Patterson, distinguished professor of Mass Communication, had begun teaching a communication course to 14 students at MBCC. This semester, Patterson and Nathan Shank, assistant professor of English, are both teaching courses there, and the number of students enrolled has increased to 28.

OC’s Chief Academic Officer Jeff McCormack thought of the idea with the help of his daughters who had previously taken a college course alongside inmates. The goal is for inmates in the program to earn an associate of science degree with an emphasis in business. It can be completed in four years. 

The program is free of charge to the inmates, and it is made possible through federal funding of Pell grants and a private donor. 

As part of the communication course Patterson teaches, he administered the McCloskey Personal Report of Communication Apprehension, which is a standard test to determine anxiety in communication, during the first and last week of the semester. The average score for the PRCA is 19.3, but after the first time his students took it, their average score was 22.3. A higher score indicates more nervousness. Patterson helped his students decrease their anxiety.

“By the end of the class, the average came down to 18.7, which is below the national average," Patterson said. “This empirical evidence shows that OC did some good in the classroom for these incarcerated students.”

Without the volunteer time and compassion from Shank and Patterson, the program would not be possible. The OC community, including OC President John deSteiguer, is proud of everyone involved in the HOPE Program. 

"In addition to having a great impact on his students, Dr. Patterson himself has already been greatly impacted in a positive way by this experience,” deSteiguer said. “I look forward to hearing further positive impacts this program is having, as the OC experience is carried behind prison walls."