From the desk of... Ashley Brown

Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) goes to jail

Ashley Brown
Advertising Sales Manager

We all encounter various situations in life when we are forced to step outside of our comfort zone. Over the past several weeks I have had to step out of my comfort zone and into unfamiliar territory. For a group project in Sales Management we had to develop a project that would teach individuals in the community free enterprise. Unlike our other classmates who chose to endure a "safer" SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) project, we chose to take on a challenge Professor Joseph Izzo had once been a part of while teaching in Virginia.

Over the past few weeks, three business colleagues and I ventured into the Chautauqua County Jail and volunteered our time teaching inmates proper business skills. We have been teaching inmates how to develop functional resumes, business etiquette and proper interview skills with a hope that they will take this knowledge and put it to use to become an active member of society and a positive influence on others upon their release. During our first session, the inmates start off by taking a pre-survey, to test what they already know about the business world.

After the completion of our two day program, they are given a post-survey and a conclusion test to measure how receptive they were of the material taught. Our initial encounter with the jail began as an orientation meeting with the warden who gave us a tour of the facility. We walked through various corridors, known as pods, containing inmates who were sentenced for anything from charges of burglary to murder. This was our initial experience at stepping out into unfamiliar territory. On our first day, our lesson plan in hand, we were anxious to see how this experience would unfold. We arrived at the jail, went through the proper sign in procedures, and entered the G.E.D. room where we met our first group of 8 women. As they filed in, stripes and all, there was a bit of tension in the air as to what was going on and what they could expect from the three young ladies that stood in front of them. As we introduced ourselves and went over our mini lesson, they all seemed to be quite interested and stayed focused for the time we spent with them, avidly asking questions.

As we assigned them their homework, to complete a form regarding their past education, work experience, training and skills, several inmates became overwhelmed. Some of the women felt frustrated because they had never held a job before and others felt discouraged because they had a felony behind their name. With an encouraging tone we helped them develop ideas of what they could put on their resume regarding their skills. It was fascinating to us as they all seemed quite encouraging of one another. One inmate whispered to the other, "You’ll be fine once you get out, just don’t do what I did, don’t get back into trouble." As we exited the jail, it was a relief to be able to continue on and go about our normal routines and that at the end of the day, unlike the inmates, we were able to go home. At the conclusion of this project we hope that we are able to walk away knowing we had a positive impact on the men and women we worked with. We give great thanks to the Chautauqua County Jail and their dedicated employees for letting us have this opportunity to volunteer in helping a cause we find to be a necessity, which hopefully will one day become a permanent program within the jail.