Adnan Syed Lands Job at Georgetown University Following Prison Release

Syed calls the new job "a full circle moment."

After being released from prison following 23 years locked up, Adnan Syed has a new job — one he hopes will help others behind bars.

Syed, who was the subject of the podcast “Serial” and whose conviction for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee was overturned back in September, began work as a program associate for the Prisons and Justice Initiative at Georgetown University on December 12, the school confirmed this week.

PJI offers “educational programs and training for incarcerated individuals and returning citizens” — with the school sharing Syed, 41, will support the Making an Exoneree class, “in which students reinvestigate decades-old wrongful convictions, create short documentaries about the cases and work to help bring innocent people home from prison.”

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Before joining the program, Syed was one of 25 incarcerated students for the school’s Bachelor of Liberal Arts program at Patuxent Institute in the year leading up to his release.

“To go from prison to being a Georgetown student and then to actually be on campus on a pathway to work for Georgetown at the Prisons and Justice Initiative, it’s a full circle moment,” Syed said in a statement. “PJI changed my life. It changed my family’s life. Hopefully I can have the same kind of impact on others.”

“It’s beautiful to see lives changing just from someone saying, ‘Hey, here’s a chance. What are you going to do with it?’ he said of the program at Patuxent. “So those are the things that I brought out with me, because they meant the most to me.”

Georgetown noted that the new job is a first 9-5 for Syed, who was arrested when he was just 17 In 1999. They added his “computer familiarity ended with Windows ’98.”

“I’ve never had a job where I get a chance to be on the computer all day,” said Syed. “It’s a really normal feeling and an amazing feeling. I’m so grateful for it. Yesterday I was like, I can’t wait to do this again tomorrow, you know?”

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