From the president
Beatrice Kahn is a junior at the University of Oregon’s Robert D. Clark Honors College, majoring in History and English. She is a recipient of the nationally prestigious, merit-based Stamps Leadership Scholarship and is driven by a passion for education access and social justice. Beatrice works as a Policy and Reentry intern with the UO Prison Education Program and assistant teaches an Inside-Out Prison Exchange course at the Oregon State Penitentiary. In November 2024, she was named an Emerging Leader by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) for her work in prison education. At the 2024 OJJDP National Conference on Juvenile Justice in Washington, D.C., she was again recognized as an Emerging Leader. There, she collaborated with youth advocates to present reentry policy recommendations to more than 2,000 attendees, including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. As an intern with the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Beatrice joined the Homeland Security and Justice Team, attended a Judiciary Committee hearing on the Bureau of Prisons, and was the only intern at the Intelligence and National Security Summit. Her work contributed to a forthcoming federal audit on immigration detention standards.
Personal Statement
As a proud product of Oregon’s public schools, access to education and justice motivates my work with the University of Oregon Prison Education Program. This spring, I am assistant teaching an Inside-Out Prison Exchange class in the Oregon State Penitentiary. In November 2024, I was recognized as an “Emerging Leader” by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for my prison education work.
I am double majoring in History and English at the University of Oregon’s Robert D. Clark Honors College. Currently, I am conducting archival research for my thesis. I am analyzing UO’s role in Project NewGate, a comprehensive reentry and prison education initiative that was piloted at the Oregon State Penitentiary in 1967. Additionally, I am a 2024 Humanities Undergraduate Research Fellow. I presented my paper on Jean Rhys’s After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie at the international Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society Conference. During summer 2024, I interned with the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s Homeland Security and Justice Team, contributing to an audit on immigration detention facility standards. My experiences in research and intergovernmental communication at the university and federal levels inform my passion for public service.