San Quentin’s Prison University Project will lose two of its most valuable administrators.
They are David Cowan, who was assigned to the Prison University Project (PUP) clerk position in 2009, and Amy Roza, who came to San Quentin as a PUP volunteer in 2009 and became its program director in 2010.
Patten University accredits the PUP program at San Quentin. It’s California’s only on-site prison college program campus.
On Dec. 1, 2011, Roza announced that she will be transitioning from the college program at San Quentin in mid-January, just prior to the start of the spring 2012 semester. “I am extraordinarily grateful for this time volunteering and working with the college program. I have learned a tremendous amount from collaborations with faculty, in my work with San Quentin staff, and most of all, from our students.”
Roza indicated that she would stay in California. She said she might share her future plans with the college program shortly.
Roza is originally from New York. While working at the Center for Court Innovation as the director of Youth and Family Services, she designed and led prevention and intervention programs for criminal court-involved families.
Roza also volunteered by teaching and organizing other volunteers for the Prison Education Initiative—a group of educators leading academic classes at New York City’s Riker’s Island jail.
David Cowan earned his associate’s degree from Patten University in 2007.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to work with PUP. The teachers were a great example for me,” said Cowan. He was a role model for many of the men at San Quentin and considers “being helpful” as his greatest achievement. An avid volleyball player, Cowan was president of Alliance for Change and a member of many groups including the San Quentin T.R.U.S.T., Project CHOICE, and Reaching Beyond the Walls.
Cowan paroled from San Quentin last December.
Cowan, 43, now lives in San Francisco and is working for PUP—the first parolee to be hired at the non-profit organization. He also plans to enroll at San Francisco State University to earn his degree in public policy.
After serving time at other prisons, including Soledad and California Men’s Colony at San Luis Obispo, he was transferred to San Quentin in 2002. He served almost 23 years on a 25-to-life sentence.
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