IREF is a re-entry facility that helps prepare men serving the last few years of their sentences for release back into society. The author learned from their experience at IREF that people should not be judged by their appearance and that everyone makes mistakes. Through public speaking activities, the men at IREF helped the author improve their own speeches while the author helped prepare the men for speaking in public after release. The author also toured the Department of Homeland Security and learned about their emergency response procedures, and attended a public safety day with representatives from various security professions.

1. IREF/ Academic show case
The IREF experience for me was like nothing I have ever done before. It has changed my
views of how I see people initially and taught me not to judge a book by its cover. IREF is a re-
entry facility for men who are serving their last few years of their sentence and soon to be going
back into society. I have learned that everyone makes mistakes and that one choice can change a
person’s life. We worked on giving speeches to help prepare these men on how to speak to
people in public and they also helped us with our speeches and critiquing us on what we did. I
have had some great talks with some of these men and it has been a wonderful experience.
For my V100 class we went on a tour of the Department of Homeland Security. We were
able to learn about what they do there and what their purpose is. We saw multiple rooms they use
when emergencies happen and how they react to these things. We also had a public safety day
were people from almost every profession of public safety or security wear there. You were able
to talk to any of these people about what they did and how they felt about their jobs and they
things they had to do to get there.