'Dear Son': How A Mom's Letter Inspired A Graduation Speech — From Prison
Writing a graduation speech is a tricky task. Should you be funny, or sincere? Tell a story â or offer advice? For Yusef Pierce, a graduating senior in California, the job of putting together his public address was a bit more challenging.
"Being inside, I can't really refer to other graduation speeches," Pierce says. He's speaking by phone from inside the California Rehabilitation Center, a medium-security prison in Norco. "I was just trying to come up with what sounded like a graduation speech."
He is the first person to graduate with a bachelor's degree from the Inside-Out program at Pitzer College, a liberal arts school outside Los Angeles. In a normal year, the school would bring traditional students by bus to the prison to take classes alongside the students who are in prison.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, those classes are happening online. Pierce shared
