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Prison Education Program Graduate Begins Classes on Campus

By UNC Asheville

August 24^th, 2021

UNC Asheville's Prison Education Program, which is funded by a three-year $195,000 grant from the Laughing Gull Foundation, started in the spring semester of 2019, and offers students at Avery Mitchell Correctional Institution (ACMI) credit-bearing courses in UNC Asheville’s liberal arts curriculum. This semester, program graduate Micah Hayes becomes the first student from ACMI to continue his education on UNC Asheville's campus. Learn more in this story from the Prison Education Program's monthly newsletter:

By Brailey Sheridan '21

After a long and hot summer, classrooms on UNC Asheville's campus once again bustle with masked faces as students and staff prepare for the fall semester. For Micah Hayes, this semester is a long-awaited one; it's his first semester on campus after incarceration.

“When I first found out I had been admitted I felt a wave of joy come over me that was incredible. I just felt so accepted not just as a student but as a human being again in a society that has so much stigma surrounding people who have been incarcerated,” Hayes said.

Hayes, who is the first of our students to be released from Avery Mitchell Correctional Institution (AMCI), was formally admitted to UNC Asheville for on-campus instruction in late July. While the short amount of time between Hayes’s admittance and start on campus caused him some stress, he said he quickly got to work mentally preparing to be an on-campus student.

“As I enrolled for classes, and even now, I have been becoming increasingly nervous about coming to class on campus, mainly because I know that school takes so much time and the workload is going to put my time management skills to the test. I worry sometimes with all of the responsibilities and obligations that I have taken on that I will become burned out, but I do believe that keeping my goals in mind will energize me each day to continue on,” Hayes said.

Now a week into classes, he’s feeling more settled and declared his major as mass communication.

Above: Hayes with UNC Asheville Prison Education faculty (from left to right) Regine Criser, Patrick Bahls, and Jessica Pisano, and Brent Bailey, coordinator, Buncombe County Re-Entry Council (back center). Note: Photo was taken in summer 2021, when indoor mask mandates were lifted.

“I am most excited about networking with people at UNC Asheville. I value personal relationships so much in life that it will just be good to make new connections and foster new friendships and colleagues,” Hayes said.

When he’s not in class, Hayes spends his time doing audio and video work for Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, pursuing his certificate in personal training, hanging out with his son and tending to his business 7-6 Fitness. Hayes hopes to use his mass communication degree to market himself and his business more effectively. Back at AMCI, Hayes continues to support his friends and peers through letters and messages of support, he said.

“Through letters and phone calls, I will continue to be a source of motivation for them, just to reinforce the fact that there are people out there that want them to succeed and are dedicated to helping them in their paths to success,” Hayes said. “In fact, I hope in the future I will be one of those people to assist in the re-entry process.”

Haye’s admittance to campus was aided by the work of Sarah Humphries Nazionale and Bahls who’ve spent the last year solidifying the process by which our students can transfer to on-campus instruction with as few roadblocks as possible. Find out more about their work in next month’s newsletter.

Keep up with Hayes and his work via Instagram at @inspirationbymicah.

© 2026 UNC Asheville

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