Editor's note: This is the second in a four-part series that follows the outreach program by the cultural center.

As Penn State students neared the entrance of the State Correctional Institution at Rockview Tuesday night, the realization of entering prison set in.

"I didn't know what to expect," Endeara Campbell (senior-letters, arts and sciences) said. "I didn't want to judge. I was preparing myself mentally."

Tuesday marked the second installment of the "Breaking Bread Series," sponsored by the Paul Robeson Cultural Center. The students, who will meet with inmates at the prison each week this month, are reading Who's Gonna Take the Weight? Manhood, Race, and Power in America.

The author, Kevin Powell, spoke with the inmates and Penn State students "honestly" about his personal experiences.

Powell grew up in New Jersey with no father and often turned to his mother for answers, whom he credits with pushing him to learn and to educate himself.

"I had a great appreciation of reading because of my mom," Powell said. It was his love of reading that led him to the book that he said changed his life -- The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

"This was the first book about manhood I could relate to," he said.

Powell took the power of Malcolm's words and began to change his own lifestyle, one he said was sometimes characterized by a bad temper and poor decisions. He then relayed a similar message of self-empowerment to the inmates.

"You can be in prison, but prison doesn't have to be in you," he said. "You can't control what happened in your past, but you can control your future."

Powell said there are certain aspects of life Rockview inmates and students should note.

"The society we live in programs us to hate ourselves, to hate our neighborhoods," Powell said. "We're being trained; we're not being educated."

Rockview inmate Maurice James, who is serving seven years, related to Powell's message.

"Society programs us in a way," he said.

James, who said he has learned a lot in prison, also added that he believes in using education for positive change.

"You can be dangerous when you're ignorant and don't know anything," James said.

Powell said minorities both in and out of prison "self-sabotage" themselves by not getting an education.

"Reading is critical," he said. "If we don't begin to turn our lives around, no one is going to do it for us."

Inmate Samir Ali, who attended Temple University for four years before his incarceration, cautioned the Penn State participants.

"Learn things while you're in college. You have to read," he said.

Despite how much he has learned since incarceration, James said he was disheartened when Rockview removed the degree program offered by Penn State in 2003.

Rockview vocational counselor Jason Brewer said he was unsure how it came to an end.

"We would like to get Penn State back in the mix," he added.

Currently, Rockview offers a certificate program.

"I wouldn't be surprised if [the government] took the education system out of the prison system," James said.

Campbell, after meeting with inmates for the first time, said her "preconceived notions were suppressed."

"Some of them feel like people from home," Campbell said. "There was something familiar about them."

Campbell was shocked to see how the inmates perceived themselves and how "self-confident, socially aware and intelligent" they were.

James shared similar sentiments and said society doesn't get to see the other side of inmates.

"We're just as civilized as anybody in the streets," he said.