On Wednesday September 16, 2015, Stockton University kicked off the Constitution Day Series 2015. The event began at 6:30 and lasted over an hour. Bryan Stevenson was the keynote speaker. He was phenomenal! So many people were present; people were watching the event from the theater in the Campus Center. Many of the people at the event were not Stockton students, but older people in the community. This surprised me because I was not aware that so many people knew this speaker and came out to see him. I was also impressed by the dress of the people at this event. I was expecting people to come in clothing that students would wear in the classroom; however, many of the participants, especially adults, were dressed formally in professional business entire.

Stevenson’s stories about his experience with clients on death row were so interesting. I was uneducated on the fact that children could be convicted like adults in a trial; even if the child was as young as thirteen or fourteen. I was moved by the story of the young teenage boy crying in his arms. I was so upset by this because I know children who are that age, and I could imagine how scared and upset this little boy must have been. I was also surprised to learn that one in every three black male babies is expected to be incarcerated at some point in their lives. Volunteering in a school, I find it horrible to believe that so many of these children will be charged with crimes as they grow older. I was also interested in his working with people with disabilities and that they do not always receive the care that the laws entitle them to receive.

I feel that it was very important for Stockton to bring educated and successful people into the school to speak because so many students, like me, are uneducated on what is really going on in our communities.