Scholarship profile:

Natalie Velasco hopes to correct shortcomings in prison education

By California State University, Bakersfield

June 8^th, 2021

This is the second in a series of stories about some of the CSUB Alumni Association's 2021-2022 scholarship recipients.

Natalie Velasco walked away from a CSUB student trip to Corcoran State Prison feeling frustrated – and knowing what she wanted to do professionally.

There at the men’s facility 65 miles north of Bakersfield, Velasco met with inmates pursuing a college education, some who were serving life and would never put it to use outside prison walls and others who’d have a chance to after getting out.

For the lifers, Velasco felt sad that their multiple degrees wouldn’t amount to much more than a personal goal fulfilled. For those with a release date, or at least the prospect of one, she worried about the stigma they will face when they apply for work.

“It made me really frustrated knowing that they’re going to get out and they’re going to have an education, but because they have that felony background, it’s going to be a hindrance,” she said.

Velasco felt called to help them all. And that’s what she’s been doing since graduating from CSUB in 2020 with a criminal justice degree and what she plans to do after graduate and law school.

Velasco, a master’s in public administration student, is a teaching assistant at North Kern State Prison in Delano, where she works with reception center inmates – those being evaluated for more permanent placement – and mainline inmates – those permanently placed at North Kern.

One of her main duties is administering a basic education test to assess the education level and needs of reception center inmates. Another is helping run an e-learning program for mainline ones in which they read a book penned by a former inmate who found success after his release and are encouraged to learn lessons from it.

Velasco also supervises student conduct, tutors in groups and one-on-one, and aids classroom teachers. She feels compassion for many of the inmates despite their transgressions.

“We’re not all set, as much as we’d like to think we are, on an equal playing field,” she said. “Even though that doesn’t excuse what they did, you’ve got to understand that not every person is going to have equal access to opportunities that you might have been given, that I might have been given. Taking that into consideration is so important.”

Her goal is to finish up her MPA in a year and then pursue a law degree, both to inform a career in public policymaking focused on expanding rehabilitation and reintegration programs for inmates of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“… And I really want CSUB students to realize that even though (inmates) are people who are incarcerated, they’re still people and they deserve to have an education.”

Education is in her blood.

Velasco is the daughter of two schoolteachers and graduated from Arvin High before choosing to attend CSUB because of the opportunities she knew the hometown campus could provide her. She’s taken full advantage.

Last year, the Kegley Institute of Ethics awarded Velasco a fellowship through which she hopes to launch a letter exchange program between students in lower-division CSUB English classes and Bakersfield College classes taught at North Kern. She believes both groups have a lot to learn from one another.

“When you’re in prison, the only ones you get to learn from on the outside are the professors willing to come there,” Velasco said. …”And I really want CSUB students to realize that even though (inmates) are people who are incarcerated, they’re still people and they deserve to have an education.”

As an undergraduate, Velasco was in the Helen Louise Hawk Honors program, which extends special courses, mentoring, networking and scholarship opportunities to CSUB’s “best and brightest students.” Through it she did independent research on the effectiveness of correctional education, and is hoping to see it published.

One of her big takeaways is that women in prison aren’t offered the same educational opportunities as men. She’s presented her research at several student research competitions and conferences.

Velasco’s next research project will examine how denying felons the right to vote after release affects minority voting outcomes. She will be doing that while working multiple jobs, as she’s done throughout her collegiate career.

Velasco will continue working at North Kern, tutor for the CSUB Criminal Justice Department, and intern for state Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, through the Maddy Institute Legislative Intern Scholar Program.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” she said of the internship, which places valley university students in regional, Sacramento and Washington, D.C., offices each year. “I think it’s going to be so exciting.”