LOCKHART, Texas — A group of women currently serving time at the Lockhart Correctional Facility were awarded their high school diplomas in a ceremony on Friday morning, years after they were last in school.
“I truly feel that getting my diploma will open doors for me and keep me from going back to prison,” said Candace Alderete, an inmate, Excel Center graduate and valedictorian of the class.
For the past eight years at the Coleman Unit for Women in Lockhart, the Goodwill Excel Center has allowed women to study and work toward graduating high school while serving their sentences. On Friday, 70 women graduated as part of the class of 2024.
“The families of our graduates are here today to celebrate with them,” Theresa Rappaport, the superintendent of the Goodwill Excel Center, said. “For a lot of them, this is the first opportunity they’ve had to celebrate something positive in their lives.”
Rappaport said about 73% of people who become incarcerated don’t have a high school diploma. But she said once they receive one, that can change the likelihood that they’ll end up in prison again.
“It has such a huge impact, not just on that individual but on the families and the communities that, ultimately, they will be returning to,” Rappaport said.
That’s something Alderete, who has four daughters at home, is extremely grateful of.
“It means a lot for me because I don’t want to come back here,” Alderete said. “I’m ready to go home and do what I’m supposed to do.”
For Alderete's family, it was also a huge day they never saw coming.
"I was worried about what was going to happen, you know. It's been hard," Connie Alderete, Candace Alderete’s mother, said. "I'm just so proud, I don't know what to do."
Candace Alderete was also awarded the distinction of class valedictorian, which means the State of Texas will be paying her tuition for the first year of post-secondary education. She plans to study phlebotomy and eventually become a wound care nurse.
“I was down the wrong path, I sold drugs. So that’s not what I want to go back to,” Candace Alderete said. “I have an education now. I can do other things.”
The program also allows women to get specific industry certifications, like OSHA and to be electrical helpers, through partnerships with Austin Community College and the Goodwill Career and Technical Academy.
The Goodwill Excel Center is the first free public high school in Texas for adults ages 18 to 50 to return to school to get their high school diploma. The Coleman Unit for Women in Lockhart is one of three of the Excel Center’s Justice Education Campuses. This is the Excel Center's 10th year in operation.