Charlie Rosario was the first EPI graduate to join Emerson’s staff as a program coordinator. He oversees the Reentry and College Outside Program to assist other students and alumni with reintegration after release.
Charlie Rosario promised his mother he would get an education.
Three years ago, at age 38, he stood wearing his cap and gown in front of a crowd of peers, instructors, his family, and correctional officers, as he gave a speech at the first Emerson Prison Initiative commencement ceremony at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord. He dedicated those words—and his degree in media, literature, and culture—to his mother.
“There was not a dry eye in the house, not even mine,” Rosario said in an interview with The Beacon.
EPI launched in 2017 as a higher education credit-bearing program for people who are incarcerated and follows a similar structure to the Bard Prison Initiative, which allows a number of incarcerated individuals to attain a bachelor’s degree behind bars. Since then, the EPI program has expanded, and students can now earn their bachelor’s degree from Emerson College while in prison.
Emerson College launched the Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI) and joined BPI’s Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison in 2017.
