Join us to learn about The Last Mile, a program that prepares incarcerated individuals for successful reentry through business and technology training, from Jen Browning, Technical Program Manager at Indiana Department of Correction and Jacob Briggs, The Last Mile Graduate & Apprentice Software Engineer at SEP.
Jen shares the origin story of the Last Mile, how they’ve grown from California across the US, and how they created web development curriculum that doesn’t use the internet.
Jacob walks us through a day in the life of a Last Mile student. He shares the unique challenges The Last Mile students face both in the program and after being released and explains that those challenges have made him a better software engineer.
We wrap up the conversation by discussing the ways The Last Mile is healing returned citizens and their communities, the perseverance of the students, and the robustness of the program’s curriculum.
Episode Guests
Jen Browning | Technical Program Manager at Indiana Department of Correction
Jen works diligently to create community partnerships for the Indiana Department of Correction and their Workforce Reentry Team. She has a strong focus on helping The Last Mile returned citizens continue to build their skills through apprenticeship and junior developer positions in the rapidly growing tech community.
Jyotsna Raghuraman | Lead Software Engineer at SEP
Jyotsna is a Technical Lead at SEP. She’s experienced in the complete software life cycle from requirements gathering to product delivery as well as agile methodologies for project management. She has helped build SEP’s relationship with the Last Mile.
Jacob Briggs | The Last Mile Graduate & SEP Alumn
Jacob is a graduate of the Last Mile program and a previous SEP employee. He is now the Director of Education at the Last Mile.