Instrumental in developing the program for her visit and for tonight speak it. So thank you, molly. [applause] i also want to thank all of my colleagues for the work on this forum and on some other events throughout the year. Id like to acknowledge what the dozen cosponsors of tonight event. There are too many to name individually but but i still wo recognize them. Its gratifying so Many Organizations from across the university joined us to support this event. It demonstrates the concern and commitment of so many students, faculty and staff for the issues will discuss with two nights guessed it where to stand these are challenging topics that touch on difficult, personal experiences. I want to encourage you to support each other and to seek support from offices like care and others at tufts are well prepared and committed to dealing with these issues. As you saw in introductory video were celebrating our 20th anniversary. That in 2000 purpose of dancing top university. Our mission then and that was to ensure all tufts students across all schools and academic disciplines acquire the knowledge, the skills and the values to become leaders and problem solvers in their communities near and far. Kish calls begin with a single Student Program now known as the tisch scholars. Are there any kish scholarship tonight . Give them a shout out. Today we offer and support dozens of initiatives for students in and out of the classroom come on campus and around the world. We also are home to a nationally recognized Research Center that studies use of voting, Civic Education and other aspects of civic and democratic life. And our Community Partnerships always the center obit of our work have evolved and expanded to encompass moreom communities and broader impact. Thatat distinguished Speaker Series began seven years ago with a visit by senator elizabeth warren. A bit of irony today. Today, other Tisch College events have grown to match i didnt mean that we were honored to host her here. But today other Tisch College events have grown to match the breadth and scope of our work. Work said about this years line up of visit and guest speakers. Yesterday we hosted a lunch about the black Power Movement with professor rhonda williams. Later dispute wheelhouse congressman joe kennedy. Congressman Eric Swalwell to talk about impeachment, veteran journalist this wallace, political strategist Scott Jennings and many other scholars and leaders whose work will inform our views, child in some of our beliefs, and encourage our participation in civic life. With this diversity of speakers we want to highlight different ways by which people can impact issues they care about and help build a a more just and equitae world. Tonight asked personifies that idea and remind us that from humble beginnings, far outside the halls of power, all of us can learn from our lived experiencesur and use them to become a force for change. Cyntoia alone brown is an author, activist and advocate for criminalut Justice Reform ad for victims of human trafficking. She was born to a young mother who struggled with a call abuse and who was a victim of sex trafficking. As a teenager cyntoia became a victim of trafficking herself, and at 16 she was arrested for killing a man who solicit her for sex. Tried as an adult and sentences for life without pearl. She said it was a personal transformation in a documentary called me facing life, is our story, and her experiences and as a result many celebrities, clergy and others began advocating on her behalf. The free her went viral. On august of last year, after 15 years behind bars, cyntoia brownlong was released from prison and since then shes become a powerful advocate for criminal Justice Reform and especially for women and children in american prisons she published a memoir and her search for redemption which she wrote was she was incarcerated. She and her husband jamie founded the foundation for Justice Freeman murphy and in january of this year they recognize her as one of the best of Justice Reforms on race. And she was also a 2020 nominee for the ndebele cp award. Enjoy your guest on stage tonight, is professor hillary, a College Senior fellow and a founding directory of the Prison Initiative at fish college. I mentioned earlier this college has expanded the scope of this Educational Programs and is one of our newer initiatives that we are especially proud of. Filtering management manages the College Degree program at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute in concord which is a partnership between Bunker Hill Community college toward an associate degree two group of incarcerated men in the program. As part of the Prison Initiative also runs an inside outside course the maximum security prison in massachusetts to which these students incarcerated individuals take a course to the other korean hillarys Current Research is in the field of Higher Education and in incarceration and shes a senior lecturer with a phd in english and she also directs the program in womens gender and sexuality. And she is a strong advocate to the importance of bringing Higher Education to into prison and we are grateful that she joins us tonight in conversation with our guests. Pretty please join me in welcoming professor hillary and her distinguish speaker and cyntoia brownlong. [applause]. I want to start by thanking you again it is such an honor to be here with you in such honor to have you here and some first and have the first of many. Hillary i also want to thank you for your beautiful book and sharing your journey with us and educating us on his use of criminal justice system. In your particular journey and on face. I think for people who have a name yet read her book, i want to start by acknowledging have recently your free. August right. 318 in the morning. So im wondering if you want to share with us a kind of first all of the first night you get to experience like that first meal. Or something. Cyntoia everything is pretty much at first. My first meal actually is a can of ravioli. Hillary how was that. Cyntoia at 318 in the morning, great. Hillary said before we Start Talking about your story i wanted to ask you if you can reflect on what its been like telling your story. I can only imagine going over some of the really difficult details can be hard where maybe also very helpful noise. Cyntoia definitely been a blessing to be able to sit and talk about my story. Coming from my background, phone a lot of us dont have a voice. Our experiences, they dont count. Sitting have the opportunity to sit and talk about that is incredible. And tell everyone, my testimony and what god did for me each and every time its just a blessing. Hilary you talk about one point in your book about your trials and being kind of a battle, narrative of a not really about telling the truth. But he was telling the better story. I wonder if there is a way that you getting that kino kind of final word here shipping your story. Cyntoia ive come to find that out. A lot of times when youre in the court system you think that i just explain this and let them know what happened, this will is what will take place. I just present this case law, to this court they will rule my favor. But that is not what happened. What happened was whoever has the best narrative, whoever can put in the best performance in the courtroom, that is who wins. Nine times out of ten it will be the prosecution. So that was a very hard hurdle to overcome. Select said, i serve a god who always has life. Hilary one of the things that you do so powerfully in the book is convey the sense of yourself as a child particularly in the early part of the book. And as a teenager, and someone who was left was living in searching for love and independence just like all teenagers do. As a job. Can you also talk about ways that he repeatedly were victimized and how long it took you, i think until 2017, ten years into your sentence, he had not really identified for your experience work as victimization. And as trafficking of the victim. Rather than the teen prostitute that the media was presenting use that as. If you can talk about why you think it took so long. For you and so many women i imagine experience that horrible reality. He was in the same, about people of had their childhood taken away from them. Cyntoia i dont think we know the mainspring for me, i had several adults who i was ron who put me in this position. I had grown women were teaching me that my body was a commodity. It was a means to get something for men and is completely unacceptable. And to expect in return for my companionship for something of that nature. An evolved around pleasing a man. I was 13 years old. That is really what started me on my trajectory to be more vulnerable to being exploited. I was told to be or these things were normal. So my world had be reshaped. This is how relationships work between men and girls. I was a little girl not a woman. But thats how the skills so that by the time met a man who convinced me that we were in a relationship, meant that i would go out and have with men for money and bring it back to him. I thought that was normal. In society that i was in at that point, do not call me a trafficking. I was called teen prostitute. These were my choices made of my own and there was never any conversation about the adult that it taught me these things the world view that have been skewed to do these things and not from the people i was around, not from the court system. A long time for that understanding just might really have a lot of work now still. I cannot tell you just how many times i was told that i was bad. And that i was just hot instead of, the fact that i was a child. And i was being misled. Hilary the media trail of his early years and willing incarceration, was pretty horrific. Given since how the media might handle this situation better. It sounds like you do. But healthy or have things gotten better the last 15 years or so for ten years. You think. Cyntoia my particular case, they have definitely shifted. When i first was arrested, was painted as a monster. The media referred to me as a teen prostitute. And i think it was a dangerous individual and obviously now things have changed. Some idiot refers to in some cases about child prostitution, and its sexual exploitation. It is changing but there is still work that needs to be done. In terms of the criminal justice aspect of it. I dont see much has changed. Me personally, it is change for think a lot of times young kids, the pictures are posted up on the news and they are painted as is horrible individual. Maybe some of the circumstances that they may have been involved in at the time, its a rush to judgment. I think that is unfortunate. We limit country where we are supposed to be innocent until we are proven guilty. Hilary im not sure any of us expected but in theory, one is incarcerated or entered into the system and the rehabilitation begins. Cyntoia sounds good. Hilary it was wondering if you could talk about the reality. In the traumatizing effect of getting caught in the web of the system and whether there are specific ways and how that impacted your self and your ethic and to see. Cyntoia the reality was that from the time that we set foot into the facility, we were treated as we are there to be warehoused. When a nurse embedded strict control, roles everything a day. The only time our rehabilitation was an issue, was when there was a federal grant at stake some kind of funding that was going to human but as part of receiving the funding there had to be certain programs in place. Even then, is how much was ever necessary to get by and to comply with whatever standards that they had set for that grant. We definitely need to work more on treating people from the time they walk into the door as we need to be focused on how we get them to the other side of this. And to become the best self. What can we do to make sure that this person has a successful reentry into society. Hilary as we talk about the processes going through the multiple trials in preparation for various trials, you also described you are working with light red to was really on your side and try to help splitting and in that case, did not want you to tell your story and was essentially silencing you. That really struck me is not really personal, is something systemic about entering the system and been kind of obliterated. Cyntoia the entire nature of the court proceedings, trial proceedings, so adversarial and its all about strategy and its all about this is what they have and this is how were going to spend it. Yes, i understand that this is what the truth is and this is whats happened. George is going to go with this. And doesnt always happen with the defendant, happens a lot with the victims pretty soon of victims who both of the process and at the end they think they are going to get some sort of closure, some sense of vengeance and theyre left with the defendant in the game. There is no real restoration, note the building of what has been done. Hilary just so much, your stories thriving against all odds pretty can you turn to some of the more positive things that happened once you were in the system. Specifically thinking about your college experience. I was telling you earlier, very moving for me and i think many of us on involved in that work is tough. To hear you talk about with the role in the University Program was in your life. Can you share some of that in the students with the rules and the students will they like. Cyntoia absolutely. Those inside out program. Hilary you are working with a lot of university students. Cyntoia is part of their salt. Which is serving and learning together. So does the Program Initiative and i was four years and to starting my sentence when the opportunity presented itself to be part of the program. And to jump through a lot of hurdles. Im so glad that in it. I was expecting the bible further my education and get something that will look good like a before the court and before the governor and really looks good on paper but once i got into the class, what i realized as i had been into another community. I was in a place that all throughout my early life in public school, my own community, and always been made to feel that because of things that i had through, because of things that i had done, i was just written off. I was no good. The court process, just amplified that some for me to just be welcomed into this community of people they didnt see any of that. They just on me. They loved me. That was redeeming beyond anything that experience. They saw something in me that was was worth salvaging and investing in. It helped me to believe in myself and i started excelling in everything that i put my mind to. I ended up getting a fourpoint oh every single class. [applause]. Four. Oh. All away. [applause]. And prior to be in the program, the highest level of education was seventh grade. Hilary what you think the students, he talked about being accepted for those interactions like. I dont know if theres a specific example of a moment when they treated you a certain way. So the university itself. Cyntoia a lot of affluent people send their children there. [laughter]. Lot of these kids compared very privileged backgrounds. Although they were the same age as me, they were completely different from my own. You go into it thinking youre going to expect one thing but what i found was we had more in common than i had ever thought. It was really cool to be able to sit and have these conversations, tennessee that they were interested in learning how life was for my perspective. How can they be more respectful of that of my experience. How can they be more helpful of changing the prison system. And whenever they walked out of there, they left knowing that this could happen to me too. So those that much more invested try to change things. Hilary do you see as a result of that experience or you see a role without a new future. Cyntoia i thought about law school. When will i have time for it. Lets come out and speaking with people. I love education. It is very rewarding. Hilary you are educating and arguing already. I wanted to ask you also about the really powerful role as you quite in the booklet you are your adopted mom, in your life and in your journey. I wonder if you could talk about that. How was she part of it. Cyntoia so my mother adopted me when i was just eight months old. The only mother i had ever known. I always thought to really just giving the life of any mom would want to give a child. Even when i struggle, she was always there. Try to figure out how can i help. She would always ask me what to do. And obviously the gave her no answers that were helpful. But she tried. She tried very hard. And she was there. So when i was arrested, and it so that all of the people that i was hanging around and teaching me all of these things that now 16 yearold girl should never learn. They were nowhere to be found. The only person left standing was a mother. She been my best friend from that moment. She came to visit me every other week in prison and we are still close. Her and my husband, on the closest things to me. Hilary she got to know your husband before you got out i was very struck by but everything goes wrong in their life, their mother may not even know what about it. And you just at least at this point, and as you read the book, have such a loving relationship with your mom. There was very powerful moments when your talk about when he to the max and you were behind plexiglas and he felt not angry the guilty. I dont know. You were an incredible child and you are an incredible person. Cyntoia always. [laughter]. Went through a lot of those things, i think everybody in their fields like that. Your parents dont understand. I thought my mom was ancient. She could not understand what life in school was like for me when i told her things that i was going through. I felt like she was really not listening to what i was saying. Soy started keeping things from her. She really couldnt be there is always needed to be. That positive role model in my life. So i spent time in my life pushing her away. But as a time when is there sitting in jail, and indent everythin