Students who are looking to get away from the classroom and out into the real world have an opportunity to do just that in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange class.

Those interested in the class, which will be offered in the fall, can attend an informational session 11 a.m. Tuesday in Mabee 101.

The class, in which 15 Baker students and Jacob Bucher, associate professor of sociology, travel to the Topeka Correctional Facility to have class with incarcerated individuals, is “just a normal college class,” where all the students have reading assignments, write papers and have discussions.

This year, the Inside-Out Prison Exchange class topic is criminal justice. In the past, the class has been about gender and social identity. Within the criminal justice class, there will be discussions on law, policing, the court system and corrections, among others.

The idea for this type of class began at Temple University, but Bucher brought the idea back to Baker after hearing about it at a conference. This will be its fifth year at Baker.

“Because it’s been five years, people have moved on … and so I’ve had Baker students who took the class and have since graduated. I get emails from them saying, ‘that class inspired me to go into the job field that I’m in,’ Bucher said. “I ask students from the (other) side … who were incarcerated; they tell me, ‘this class gave me the confidence to pursue my education when I got out of prison.’”

Bucher encourages students from any major or grade to attend the informational meeting to learn more about the class.

“Often students are intimidated or worry that, ‘well I won’t be selected,’” he said.” But I would encourage everybody who’s interested to apply. I’ve taken all majors. I’ve taken all grade levels.”

Bucher will meet with students after they apply in order to get a feel for how well students would fit in to the class environment.

“There are certain characterisitics that I look for, but its really sort of a personality thing, where I try to see how you would fit in the class,” Bucher said.

Although the class meets just once a week for three hours, Bucher said the bonds the students create with each other make the class “a full experience.”

“By the end of the semester, people always comment about how close everybody is,” he said. “Because of the way the class works, it’s not just like a class here where you go and you might like it, you might not. This is a full experience where people are really bonded and invested in this.”