Fourteen incarcerated students earned bachelor's degrees from The Evergreen State College in summer 2026, the first graduating class from the school's prison education program.

Twelve of the graduates walked across the stage at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen during a commencement ceremony.

Two received their degrees in absentia.

The Evergreen Prison Education Program (EPEP) launched in January 2024. The milestone came about two and a half years later, during a summer that also brought the program formal accreditation from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), according to Evergreen's announcement published Sept. 21. An NWCCU commission letter dated Aug. 5 confirmed the action, taken at the commission's July 7–10 meeting.

"What I saw at Stafford Creek was a group of scholars who challenged themselves, learned from one another and earned their place among Evergreen's graduates," Evergreen President John Carmichael said in the announcement. "… I am proud to call these graduates Evergreen alumni."

Carmichael said the graduates showed what higher education can accomplish when colleges bring opportunity to students rather than require every student to come to campus.

The program brings Evergreen's interdisciplinary teaching model into the state corrections facility, about an hour from Olympia. All EPEP students enter with at least 90 credits toward their bachelor's degree, with community colleges providing the first two years of post-secondary coursework for many.

Building the program required coordination with the Washington Department of Corrections, compliance with federal Pell Grant requirements, fundraising and hiring, according to the college.

EPEP co-directors Kelli Bush and Eirik Steinhoff have guided the effort. Bush called the graduation "a wonderful moment to reflect on the years of hard work invested to make the bachelor's degree program a reality," adding that at many points the vision could have faded.

Steinhoff, also a faculty member who spent years developing Evergreen's prison education work, addressed the graduates directly at the ceremony. He told them they had made a positive impact on the social, cultural and natural systems around them, and urged them to keep learning after leaving school.

More than 40 students are set to join or continue with EPEP in fall 2026. More than 20 new students are expected to enter, with a similar number continuing from prior terms. Those incoming students will have something the first cohort did not: proof that completing the degree inside Stafford Creek is possible.