(GREENCASTLE) – Stephanie Mizelle, TLM Instructor for Oakland City University (OCU) at the Putnamville Correctional Facility (ISF) was recently awarded Employee of the Month honors during a ceremony at the facility.
Ms. Mizelle has been the instructor for the coding program TLM, which stands for The Last Mile, since 2019 and in that time, she has proven herself a key contributor to the success of both the program and the participants. She has been involved in coordinating visits to the program with tech companies, executives and state leaders as well as maintaining updated curriculum and supplemental materials for the students.
During the pandemic, Ms. Mizelle has again stepped up in a big way. She has been volunteering to sub as the instructor for a neighboring facility during staffing shortages and remains vigilant in preparing and distributing materials to her students in their housing units while movement is restricted.
TLM is a non-profit organization founded in 2010 at the San Quentin prison in California. Its mission is to break the cycle of incarceration by providing marketable skills to the participants in order to increase the likelihood of successful re-entry. OCU’s TLM instructors provide computer coding training to prepare the students for employment in today’s high-tech environment.
TLM is offered in five Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) facilities: Indiana Women’s Prison, Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility, ISF, Plainfield Correctional Facility and Rockville Correctional Facility. Students learn skills in web development, using technologies such as JavaScript, HTMS5 and MongoDB, among others, with the goal of becoming full-stack JavaScript engineers.
