Becoming a man | Craig Waleed | TEDxSingSing 2020

For Dr. Craig Waleed, masculinity was something he was taught at an early age, but as he grew older and wiser, he started to notice some of the more toxic aspects of the masculinity he learned. He believes that toxicity played an integral role in his eventual incarceration. Now, as a professor at SUNY Brockport, Dr. Waleed wants to help his students and other young people re-define masculinity, devoid of the parts that make it toxic in the hopes of inspiring young people and helping them improve their lives and self-images. Dr. Craig Waleed is from Rochester, NY. At the age of 19, he was sentenced to 4-to-12 years in the New York State Department of Corrections for committing a violent assault against another person. During his incarceration, he became immersed in the transformative processes of knowledge-of-self and academics. Dr. Waleed earned an associate’s degree in Liberal Arts while incarcerated and began envisioning greater possibilities for the future. In 2010, he earned a master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from the College at Brockport SUNY, and in 2017, completed a doctorate degree from Saint John Fisher College in Executive Leadership. Dr. Waleed wants to share with people who are currently entangled or at risk of becoming caught-up in the criminal legal system, his story of how he found a way to stay out of prison for good.