Funviralpark After serving 23 years and being released earlier this year, Adnan Syed was hired by Georgetown University. Syed began working as an associate in his Prisons and Justice Initiative (PJI) program at his school. PJI provides educational programs and training to incarcerated individuals.
Syed was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999. The case was featured on the “Serial” podcast a few years later and gained a lot of attention. Syed pleaded not guilty, and Baltimore attorney Marilyn Mosby was acquitted earlier this year. announced All charges brought against him will be dropped, saying new tests found “a DNA mixture of multiple contributors” in Lee’s shoes and ruled out Saeed’s DNA.
Syed, now 41, started his new role in Georgetown on Dec. 12, the school announced this week. In his role, he supports his PJI programs, including the Making an Exoneree class that forces students to re-examine their unjustified beliefs. Students work to bring innocent people back from prison and create a short documentary about the case.
PJI also includes the Prison Scholarship Program, which provides higher education opportunities to those incarcerated in Washington, DC and Maryland. This is what Sayid took part in during her final year in prison. Syed said he saw a flyer for the program on the prison bulletin board but couldn’t believe it was real.
His friend group encouraged each other to apply.
“It became this domino effect to see us accepted,” Said said. “It’s become real in the eyes of others that there is an opportunity. Maybe there’s a sense of hope. A sense of hope that things will get better, a sense of hope that things will get better, work hard and achieve something.” I feel a sense of hope that I can do it, a hope that I can do something that my family will be proud of.”
“For the first time in 23 years, I didn’t feel like I was in prison. I felt like a college student learning,” he said. Syed took courses in philosophy, statistics, life his writing and learned how to use a laptop.
PJI also offers the Pivot Program, which allows previously incarcerated individuals to obtain certification in business, and the MORCA Georgetown Paralegal Program, which prepares returning citizens for a career in law.
Syed said he hopes to continue his education at Georgetown and eventually go to law school.
“Being on campus from prison to being a student at Georgetown and actually working for Georgetown on prison and judicial initiatives for Georgetown is a moment of perfect circles.” PJI has changed my life. It changed the life of a friend, and I hope I can make a similar impact on others.”
Said’s release from prison in September was met with media fanfare. When he went out for free for the first time in over 20 years and photographers flocked to him, he had a binder with Georgetown Bulldog stickers inside, with graded reports and tests. , on the final exam in statistics he scored 98.
Kaitlyn O’Kane
