Engaging BPI students beyond the classroom
A scene from A Passing Life.
![Students working together.](https://bpi.bard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/BPI_800x533_Karen_Pearson_06756F_Peer-Tutoring.jpg)
Tutoring Fellowship
Tutoring Fellows work with students in a variety of ways: helping read and think about a difficult text; workshopping or talking over ideas; giving feedback on a draft or section of an essay; offering guidance on structure, argument, evidence, or any aspect of their coursework, including study skills. Fellows may be students from the main Bard College campus who come to the prison once a week, or they may be students enrolled within one of the prisons. Each semester, some Fellows are assigned to particular students from a First-Year Seminar or Writing Intensive class, while others function in a drop-in capacity for students in any class.
Debate
BPI’s Debate Union has a record of storied wins against Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Morehouse, University of Cambridge, and most recently Duke University. The team hosted and won its first public-style debate in April 2014 against West Point on the topic of “Should the United States Federal Government invest in a national high speed rail system?”
![BPI Debate team posing for photo with their competitors from Brown.](https://bpi.bard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BPI_800x534_221202_Karen-_Pearson_BPI_KAP04633.jpg)
“The Debate Union has blossomed into a destination for intercollegiate debaters from colleges and universities across the globe looking to engage in competitive debate at the highest level.”
—David Register, Director of Debate
Our Lifetime Record: 12-4
Acting Ensemble
“Joining the acting ensemble helped me break down barriers of judgment — it allowed me to remove the fear of failure and not worry about what other people thought of me. The activities Professor Tynes led us through allowed me to fully explore my imagination.”
—La-Meik Taylor ’23
Our Productions
![BPI Student actors in robe costumes are applauded at end of A Passing Life.](https://bpi.bard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BPI_700x700_0000_DSCF9326.jpg)
![BPI Student actors in robe costumes are applauded at end of A Passing Life.](https://bpi.bard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BPI_700x700_0000_DSCF9326.jpg)
A Passing Life
In 2023, the Acting Ensemble wrote, produced, and acted in BPI’s first-ever play production at Eastern Correctional Facility. The play, “A Passing Life,” was the culmination of more than a year’s worth of work by students, who developed the storyline in response to a prompt asking them to reflect on the term “passing.” The story follows “Willie James” as he tries to figure out who am I? Willie James is the head of the local Choral Society and a struggling want-to-be actor. We see how he and those around him explore what it means to “pass” as a different identity in New York City.
Gardens
Students who participate in the Garden acquire knowledge about and hands-on skills related to organic gardening and food production through a combination of workshops in the classroom and outdoor work in the BPI on-site garden. Students learn about soil and plant health, the current conventional agriculture and industrial food systems, organic and other natural methods for growing and producing food, alternative and unconventional garden techniques, and methods for achieving food sovereignty.
Students exposed to a garden throughout the growing season and should be able to start and maintain a garden of their own or find employment on a commercial garden or farm.
![BPI student harvests onions in the garden at Fishkill.](https://bpi.bard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/BPI-Fishkill-garden.jpg)