Road to the Ivy League Includes Detour to NJ Correctional Centers For This Recent CU Grad
1/16/2025
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Accepted to prestigious Princeton University P3 program for prospective Ph.D. candidates, Wantage resident Kayla Diee ’24 runs educational programs for incarcerated people.
HACKETTSTOWN, NJ, Jan. 16, 2025—For Kayla Diee ’24, the completion of her Centenary University degree in December has already opened doors. The Wantage, NJ, resident was recently accepted to the prestigious Prospective Ph.D. Preview (P3) program, which prepares scholars of diverse academic, research, and non-traditional backgrounds to apply for a doctoral degree at the Ivy League university. In December 2024, Diee earned dual Centenary degrees in English and writing, along with a minor in paralegal studies.
For three days last fall, Diee attended seminars and met with Princeton faculty to learn more about the institution’s doctoral program in English, as well as campus life. While there, she explored how her passion—education at correctional institutions—dovetails with the mission of Princeton’s Prison Teaching Initiative. Through the program, Princeton students provide incarcerated people with opportunities for high-quality postsecondary education and the chance to earn community college credits. That mission resonates with Diee, who as a Centenary undergraduate founded a literacy program for detainees at the Warren County Correctional Center.
“Princeton was incredible,” said Diee, who is in the process of applying to the university’s doctoral program in English. “I adore Princeton’s values and the way they contribute to correctional education. I connected with Princeton professors who have worked in the Prison Teaching Initiative. The mission of that program is very special to me.”
Several years ago, Diee founded The Next Chapter Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to increase the confidence and communication skills of imprisoned people, providing them with an outlet to process their experiences and emotions. Since then, she has organized several drives that have collected more than 2,000 books to establish a recreational reading library at the Warren County Correctional Center. She has also conducted several 16-week writing courses for detainees at the prison, providing them with communication skills to better assimilate to life after incarceration.
Diee first experienced the dynamics of incarceration through the New Jersey State Police Explorer Program, a nationally-recognized career exploration activity for teens. During a visit to an Atlantic City correctional facility through Stockton University’s CSI program, she witnessed dire conditions, including a man whose pleas for a doctor were ignored and a maximum security prisoner whose only recreation was pacing back and forth within a small caged area. Later, Diee learned that educational courses in prisons can change lives: Detainees are over 60 percent less likely to be reincarcerated after participating in a correctional education program.
“My primary point of interest right now is to continue supporting correctional facilities and their educational endeavors, while increasing my advocacy on behalf of incarcerated individuals,” explained Diee, who is currently considering a career in either academia or law. “The heart of my program is to help incarcerated individuals build self-confidence through written expression. It’s important to anyone in a vulnerable position, like experiencing incarceration, which is very isolating. Stronger communication skills helps them to develop a perspective that this is their situation now, but they can grow from it. It’s very humbling and special for me to be part of their support system.”
Reflecting on her undergraduate years at Centenary—where she was editor of the University newspaper, a writing tutor, resident assistant, and member of Alpha Alpha Alpha, the University’s honor society for first-generation college students—Diee said, “No progress is made alone, and I have been very fortunate to have a supportive group of people behind me at Centenary. They not only heard what I had to say, but gave me a microphone to get my efforts off the ground. The culture at Centenary truly reflects my values of giving back and uplifting others.”
ABOUT CENTENARY UNIVERSITY
Centenary University offers extraordinary learning opportunities that empower students to develop intellectually, emotionally, and interculturally—keys to career and personal success. Under the leadership of President Dale Caldwell, Ed.D., the University aspires to advance its reputation as a world class institution offering innovative programs, including the world’s first Master of Arts in Happiness Studies, to lift the future for our students and local communities.
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