Decades after earning his high school equivalency diploma at a state prison for young men, Christopher Medina-Kirchner is a teaching fellow and post-doctoral research scientist at Harvard Medical School. 

Medina-Kirchner was the keynote speaker during a ceremony honoring 29 graduates last week, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections announced in a press release on Wednesday. Attending the ceremony was his first visit back to the Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility since his release.

“If you don’t believe that a future is possible, you’re never going to pursue it,” Medina-Kirchner said, according to the DOC. 

Citing his experience in the Ivy League, he told graduates that “I really think that what you did takes more courage.” 

“Getting an education here in prison you have to navigate challenges that most students will never understand,” he said. “You have to stay focused in an environment that makes that difficult.”

The Verge and the Racine County Eye have reported on Medina-Kirchner’s journey, with the Eye reporting that he ended up selling drugs and was in and out of the system from when he was 18 to when he was 25 years old, eventually getting out in 2013. The DOC said that at Harvard, his research involves the effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and he hopes this type of research “can help lead to evidence-based approaches to drug education and public policy.”

Nine of the graduates earned technical certificates in mechatronics from Gateway Technical College. Twenty of them earned a high school equivalency diploma (HSED), and seven of those earned their Multi-Craft Core Curriculum HSED in partnership with the Literacy Services of Wisconsin, which includes a pre-apprenticeship element within the construction building trades. 

After earning his high school equivalency degree at the prison, Medina-Kirchner earned his bachelor’s degree at UW-Milwaukee and doctorate at Columbia University, the DOC said.  

“I hope you never stop believing in yourselves,” he said during his speech. “Your future is not limited by where you started. It’s not limited by your mistakes, by your felony, or what anyone else thinks about you…Your greatest accomplishments likely still lie ahead of you. I want you all to reach for the stars, because I’m standing here proof that sometimes when you reach for one you can actually grab it.”

Staff, teachers and more than 30 family members honored graduates at the ceremony, the DOC said. Medina-Kirchner spoke with graduates individually to offer encouragement and answer questions about the opportunities and challenges graduates will face after release. 

The Racine prison hosts three graduation ceremonies each year to honor student achievements, and 142 incarcerated people graduated from high school or post-secondary programs at the facility during the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the DOC said. 

Corrections Secretary Jared Hoy noted that the University of Wisconsin System’s first incarcerated bachelor’s degree recipients since 1975 were recognized last month. 

Hoy said in the press release that “there are a growing number of opportunities available to those in our care, and it’s worth celebrating the men and women who take advantage of them.”

The Atwood Music Hall in Madison was packed Wednesday afternoon, as community members said goodbye to Stuart Dymzarov, the founding principal of Malcolm Shabazz City High School and, for many, many people, a beloved mentor and friend.

Colleagues and former students at Shabazz, the alternative school launched in 1971 with a grant from the Ford Foundation, remembered Stuart’s fierce advocacy for his vision of an open-minded, flexible school. “Education by any means necessary,” was his riff on the famous slogan of the school’s namesake, Malcolm X.

Hearing the eulogies for Stuart, a big bear of a man with a wild beard, radical politics and a radiant warmth, brought back the optimism and high spirits of a generation of Madisonians who protested the war in Vietnam, rejected careerist striving and established their own little cooperative communities in the idealistic belief that they were on the cusp of changing the world for the better. 

One of those starry-eyed idealists was my mother, Dorothy Conniff, who lived in a collective household with Stuart and a dozen other young radicals on Spaight Street on Madison’s East Side. She was in her 20s then and I was just a toddler. “We supported each other’s projects and ideals and had intense discussions about how to change the world,” my mom wrote in the online guest book for Stuart’s memorial. I remember a single check she kept in a scrapbook from the joint household account of those days, with 14 names in the upper lefthand corner — a testament to the trust and cooperation in that happy group. 

Like a lot of young people in the heady 1960s and 1970s in Madison, my mom, Stuart and their whole cohort felt progress over injustice and violence was underway and the world would soon be a brighter place.  “We were optimistic because the antiwar movement had forced Lyndon Johnson out of office,” my mom told me. A lot of former Madison radicals were in the white-haired crowd at the memorial service, including former Mayor Paul Soglin, former Alderman Billy Feitlinger and Jeff Feinblatt, one of the Shabazz teachers who, inspired by Stuart, nurtured and inspired a new generation of young people.

I remember Stuart as a big, benign presence in striped overalls, hoisting the kids in the Spaight Street household on his shoulders and rumbling around the house. Later he became a devoted father to his own three children with his wife of 50 years, Marsha (the two combined their last names, Dym and Zarov) and a beloved uncle, grandfather and father figure to hundreds of Shabazz students. 

Stuart’s nephew Miles Kietzer gave a touching tribute to the uncle who used to pick him up along with his sister after school and take them wherever they wanted to go, buying them treats and letting them fritter away his money on plastic trinkets with an easy-going smile.

Stuart’s brother Harvey described how Stuart would spend endless hours hanging out and having conversations with people, and when Harvey quizzed him on what they had said and what he had learned, he shrugged it off. “I like experiencing people,” he told Harvey. That acceptance and enjoyment of people with no particular goal in mind was classic Stuart.

Stuart was always willing to give people rides, day and night, including, according to one of his younger relatives, on a memorable night when he called Stuart from a biker bar where he was having a drug-induced attack of paranoia. Stuart drove across town in the middle of the night, appeared in the doorway of the bar, a looming presence in a khaki jacket and driving cap, wrapped his younger relative in a hug and took him home.

The feeling of safety and love he gave people is the strongest, lasting impression Stuart left.

He was a fighter — against the “fascist” politics he despised in the U.S. government, even before the current era, and on behalf of people he felt were not given a fair shake. His friends remember his ferociousness on the basketball court, his relentlessness in political arguments, and his tireless, aggressive advocacy at school board meetings and the superintendent’s office on behalf of the staff and students at Shabazz.

But mostly, Stuart made people feel cared for, appreciated, heard. It seems to me that quality is exactly what we need right now, to counter the epic cruelty, hatred and greed that is engulfing our nation and the world.

The sunny optimism of the 1960s counterculture seems far away today. But Stuart’s legacy lives on, not just at the still-thriving alternative high school he founded (where the family encourages people to make a donation to the scholarship program in his name), but also in the light he brought into the world by really seeing other people, accepting and loving them. Experiencing that quality in Stuart in small ways, one on one, is what made such a difference for people. More than any grand political program or analysis, it is a powerful antidote to despair. 

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Each day she goes to school, Hmong American Peace Academy senior Eva Vang feels so welcomed among her teachers and peers that she’s received awards for perfect attendance.

“Maybe it’s just because we’re at a predominately Hmong school, but we kind of connect in a lot of ways,” Vang said. “It’s easy to kind of relate to them and relate to the same experiences that we have.”

Aside from a brief stint at a different school in the third grade, Vang has spent each year since kindergarten at Hmong American Peace Academy, or HAPA, in Milwaukee. The Northwest Side charter school serves students from kindergarten to 12th grade with a curriculum rooted in Hmong cultural values and heritage.  

In 2025, the Elementary School and Secondary Education Act Network recognized HAPA as a distinguished school for exceptional student performance and academic growth. It was one of only two Wisconsin schools to receive the national honor last year. 

The school achieved the recognition largely through its efforts to address chronic absenteeism, retain teachers and expand their college and postsecondary career programs, HAPA Chief Academic Officer Brendan Kearney said.

Here’s how it did it.

‘Amazing sense of purpose’

Middle school English language arts teacher Austeen Yang is in her fourth school year at HAPA, and she said the school’s respect for teachers keeps her coming back. 

“HAPA is amazing at asking for our advice and then making decisions based off of that advice,” Yang said. 

Each year, the school solicits teacher feedback through annual surveys, then reports the findings and plans to respond to suggestions and concerns. 

“I think it’s a really big part of the culture, and we’ve seen a lot of things change because of those surveys,” Yang said. 

HAPA recently reported a 96% staff retention rate.

Sara Shaw, deputy research director at Wisconsin Policy Forum, said many schools across the state have struggled with teacher retention since the pandemic. Researchers observed a spike in teacher turnover going into the 2022-23 school year, and while numbers have decreased slightly, they’re still above pre-pandemic levels. 

Shaw attributes the retention issues to both a change in labor market conditions, where inflation rose and it became more favorable for workers to negotiate employment elsewhere, and problems specific to education.

Shaw said the strains from COVID-19 caught up to a lot of teachers, who originally worked to support students during the pandemic but left when things became too difficult. 

HAPA administration recognized that attracting and keeping good, quality teachers would be critical to accomplishing the school’s academic goals, Kearney said.

The school made several adjustments to meet the needs of new educators and returning teachers, including reducing minutes in the workday and the number of workdays in the calendar year. The school also made changes in compensation, class sizes and professional development opportunities, Kearney said. 

“We won’t get done what we need to if we can’t keep good teachers in the building getting better year after year and serving our scholars,” Kearney said. “We don’t want our scholars to show up and see a bunch of new people.” 

Something else that Yang appreciates about HAPA is the school’s focus on providing a culturally based education. 

Yang, being of Hmong heritage, said she feels a “great, huge amazing sense of purpose” and connects with the school’s commitment to preserving and teaching Hmong cultural values.

Supportive teachers and postsecondary success

HAPA senior Angelina Yang, who’s attended the school since kindergarten, said she felt motivated to come to school this year because of HAPA’s Money Coach program, where senior students learn financial literacy skills. 

“I don’t really have a strong knowledge or education on financial literacy,” Yang said. “Going to that program really helped me understand why it’s important to be present in that program because it betters me.”

Vang appreciates the school’s college and career office, which focuses on postsecondary success. She said the office helped her figure out what she wants to do after school and apply for colleges and scholarship opportunities. 

“It is a time right now where it’s very overwhelming, but because we have such a great college and career team, they do support us a lot,” Vang said. “In a way, I think they did also kind of grow my expectations for college.”

Vang said she knew she wanted to go to college since her freshman year. 

She has choices – she’s been accepted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Loyola University and DePaul University. She’s looking to study medicine and become an emergency physician. 

The office has also supported Yang, who plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

“A lot of the students here are first generation,” Yang said. “Having that support really builds our self-esteem and making sure that we know what we want to do in the future and how we can go to college or enter the workforce.”

After seeing how transportation barriers to hospitals in Laos impacted her uncle during her freshman year, she decided to study health promotion and equity. 

“That really made me recognize the health disparities in my community and in my family,” she said. “Going into health administration … would help me at least try to help remedy those uncertainties.”

Kearney said HAPA has invested in greater college support in the past five years. 

Traditionally, counselors at the school helped students in a more one-size-fits-all fashion. Currently, the school has four college advisers, a coordinator and a director of college and careers who work to personalize the experience for students and connect their work now with their post-graduation goals. 

“The goal is that every student here leaves with a plan,” Kearney said. “For very many of them, it’s college, but we also support students who want to pursue career or technical education.”

Chronic absenteeism

Neither Yang nor Vang has struggled much with attendance at HAPA. Still, the school has not been immune to chronic absenteeism, especially after the pandemic. 

HAPA tackles absenteeism through a multi-tiered system of supports, a collaborative group of staff members who help identify the causes of absenteeism and support the scholars and their families, Kearney said. 

“A big part of making that work has been investing in student services staff,” Kearney said. “Post-pandemic, we’ve added several staff members who can help to serve different parts of the scholar.”

The team helps design an intervention or support plan based on what’s causing the student to miss school. Sometimes that includes connecting students with social workers, counselors or helping those dealing with homelessness, Kearney said.

If a student hasn’t been to school in a while and can’t be reached on the phone, HAPA sends impact coaches to check on students at their homes.

Austeen Yang said the system works well for teachers because they talk with other educators about the student of concern and collaborate to address issues. When teachers have exhausted all their options for helping the student, the support team comes in to support students. 

Kearney said the system came from teacher feedback. 

“It’s a part of why we’ve invested in student services staff,” Kearney said. “When teachers are expected to do all things for all students, it becomes an unsustainable job.”

Angelina Yang said the supportive teachers keep her coming back and her attendance strong. 

“HAPA does a really great job at hiring teachers who actually really care about their students and their well-being,” Yang said. “Having that support makes me feel more inclined to go just because I have a space that I know that I am welcome in.”

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Hmong American Peace Academy received national recognition for exceptional performance. How did it do it? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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I have visited many after-school and summer programs across Wisconsin, from large urban sites to small rural schools, and what I’ve seen has stayed with me. I’ve watched students immersed in creative writing, acting and robotics. I’ve observed staff working one-on-one with kids navigating intense emotional challenges. And I’ve seen the smiles on middle schoolers’ faces as they reconnect with trusted mentors at the end of the school day. These programs are not “extras”; they provide crucial support to kids, families and entire communities.

The access gap

And yet, for far too many Wisconsin families, these opportunities remain out of reach. According to the latest America After 3PM report, nearly 275,000 Wisconsin children who would participate in after-school programs are not enrolled because none are available. Four in five children who could benefit from these supports are missing out. Parents cite cost, lack of transportation and a simple lack of local programming as the biggest barriers.

The benefits are clear

The impact of these programs is undeniable. Parents overwhelmingly rate their children’s after-school programs as excellent or very good, reporting that they keep kids safe, build social skills and support mental wellness. Research in Wisconsin shows that students who participate in extracurricular activities are less likely to report anxiety or depression and more likely to feel a sense of belonging.

Out-of-school-time programs often provide the space for deep, long-term mentoring, a powerful protective factor in a young person’s life. While teachers are often stretched thin during the academic day, out-of-school-time staff can focus on the relational side of development.

The cost of instability

When funding is unstable, it undermines the very connections that make these programs transformative. Recently, a Boys & Girls Club director shared the human cost of budget constraints: They were forced to reduce a veteran staff member to part-time. This didn’t just trim a budget; it severed a multi-year mentorship. When that bond was broken, several youths stopped attending entirely.

Wisconsin lags behind national trends

Across the country, after-school and summer programs are increasingly viewed as essential to youth development. Twenty-seven states provide dedicated state funding for these programs; Wisconsin provides none. States as different as Alabama and Texas recognize that federal funding alone is not enough. So do our Midwestern neighbors.

• Minnesota and Illinois have invested in these programs for years.
• Michigan established a $73 million grant program to expand before-school, after-school and summer learning statewide.
• Pennsylvania created the $11.5 million Building Opportunity through Out-of-School Time (BOOST) program.

The opportunity to act

Public support for these programs is strong and bipartisan. Families across Wisconsin want safe, enriching opportunities for their children. With a significant budget surplus, Wisconsin is uniquely positioned to invest in its future.

State leaders should view out-of-school programming as a foundation for safety, mental health and long-term economic opportunity. We have the resources; now we need the will. By committing to consistent state funding, we can ensure that every young person in Wisconsin has a place to belong when the school bell rings.

Daniel Gage is a consultant with the Afterschool Alliance and Wisconsin Out of School Time Alliance, focusing on advocacy and outreach. He co-founded the Wisconsin Partnership for Children and Youth, a coalition that promotes after-school and summer programs as vital for healthy youth development and future citizenship.

Opinion: After-school programs are essential. Wisconsin should fund them that way. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.