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When Jelani Freeman came home after school one day, his mother was gone. Eight years old, he waited, realizing as the hours passed that she would not be back. She was mentally ill and in need of treatment. His father was in prison. ?I just knew that was it,? he recalled. His final placement, for a year and a half, was with an older sister who took him on a foster-care basis, he said, and told him he would have to leave when he turned 18.

Today, Jelani Freeman is a government lawyer who graduated Howard University Law School in 2010. It was an improbable journey for foster children to even graduate high school, yet he beat the odds. Freeman, who interned in Clinton's Senate office, says she inspired him to go to law school. He told the Washington Post in 2010 that Hillary even talked to him about his career plans. "I sort of see this as a collective achievement," Freeman, then 29, told the Post. "People say encouraging things to other people because it's the nice thing to do. But she was sincere. She helped me believe it."

He spoke in the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia to support Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Come and listen to him speak at the Commonwealth Auditorium on November 28, 7 PM. It is a free event!

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