Photo credit: Wisconsin Examiner
Decades after earning his high school equivalency diploma at a state prison for young men, Christopher Medina-Kirchner is a teaching fellow and post-doctoral research scientist at Harvard Medical School.
The Wisconsin Examiner reports that Medina-Kirchner was the keynote speaker during a ceremony honouring 29 graduates last week, according to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Attending the ceremony was his first visit back to the Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility since his release.
“If you don’t believe that a future is possible, you’re never going to pursue it,” he said, according to DOC.
Citing his experience at the Ivy League, he told graduates, “I really think that what you did takes more courage.”
“Getting an education here in prison, you have to challenge that most students will never understand,” he said. “You have to stay focused in an environment that makes that difficult.”
The Verge and the Racine County Eye have reported on Medina-Kirchner’s journey, with the eye reporting that he ended up selling drugs and was in and out of the system from when he was 18 to when he was 25 years old, eventually getting out in 2013. The DOC said that at Harvattd, his research involves the effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and he hopes this type of research “can help lead to evidence-based approaches to drug education and public policy.”
After earning his high school equivalency at the prison, he earned his bachelor’s degree at UW-Milwaukee and doctorate at Columbia University, the DOC said.
