Rachel's Story

As the sun begins to rise on November 3 over New York City, thousands of runners will lace up their sneakers and get ready to tackle the famed course throughout the five boroughs. The Petey Greene Program is thrilled that we will have six incredible athletes, dedicating their run to our mission of providing academic opportunities for currently and formerly incarcerated people. 

Meet Rachel Serebrenik, one of the Petey Greene Program’s incredible runners, who believes strongly in the PGP’s mission of promoting educational justice. As a former elementary school teacher and current law student who is active in her school’s program that advocates for incarcerated individuals’ parole cases, the Petey Greene Program is situated at the intersection of things she cares deeply about. 

“I have always cared about access to education across different communities and access points. And being a teacher only strengthened my conviction that quality education is a right that everyone deserves. And since going to law school, I have been more focused on working with people who are incarcerated and helping them get access to all of the resources and opportunities that they’ve been deprived of simply by the fact that they are incarcerated.”

While working with her clients that are seeking parole, she has gotten a close look at why education for people who are incarcerated is so vital: “When they are thinking about their reentry, it’s clear that there were certain educational opportunities they weren’t able to access while inside and that has definitely disturbed their plan to reenter society.” 

For many students who are incarcerated, they aren’t even aware that education is something they should be able to achieve while inside our nation’s prisons and jails. Rachel is glad that the Petey Greene Program expands their understanding of what could be possible:

“Educational justice starts with even knowing what is out there and knowing what you as a human are entitled to in terms of skill-building and educational opportunity. So, the Petey Greene Program is showing people they have a right to this, and then giving them access to that right.”

When Rachel knew that she wanted to run the New York City Marathon, she was eager to look for charity partners that were educational-justice-oriented. She was pleased to find the Petey Greene Program but wished that she saw other organizational partners who were also advocating for and working towards criminal justice reform. She is excited to run a race she is excited about for an organization she is motivated by. 

“I’m from New York and really enjoyed training in New York over the summer, so I’m really excited to see the different neighborhoods and different energies that come out along the race route. And knowing that my friends and family will be cheering me on along the way is really meaningful to me - I can’t wait!”