Mackenzie is currently suing the university. If we review your medical records, are we going to see you had broken ribs and facial injuries? MF: I mean, part of it is honestly like its looking at cause we just wanted to be as thorough as possible of when [laughs] I was crying, and then I was crying and taking breaths. As youve had time to sort through this, what do you think was driving Penn to go through this process, which they had to know, at some level, would cost them? Aviv tells the story of Mackenzie Fierceton, a former student at the University of Pennsylvania. "[4][2], Winkelstein followed up with a letter to Elizabeth Kiss, the trust's CEO, alerting her that the university had been investigating Fierceton's story, found it to have seriously diverged from the reality of her life, with the abuse allegations quite possibly fabricated. [3], Before that happened, Fierceton withdrew from the scholarship on her own. She told Brandt it was her mother, and asked her to keep Morrison from coming to her room. on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadnt done it? Yeah, so Penn First for the whole FGLI community. RG: So, to cut into the interview here real quick, I wanted to add that Mackenzie is referring to a letter sent to the Rhodes Trust in December 2020. While the investigators understood, they also wrote that the limited information she provided may have been more likely to elicit an answer favorable to her. And what happened after that? RG: Did they make that threat in writing or was that . RG: And what was the first-generation community like on campus? And theres also literature thats economic literature versus sociology, different fields have different perspectives on what that relationship between foster care and the criminal justice system is and what the causes are. Again, this is obviously secondhand, because I was unconscious. And then it just launched into the first half being a line-by-line it felt like interrogation of my applications. [Laughs.]. In retrospect, I just honestly wish I had never written about those people, but it was kind of one of those things where I was like: OK, I need to make my point. They had done their own investigation again, quotes on investigation and then I had submitted over a hundred pages of documents to them. And I was the one who uncovered my classmates death. RG: Like, those two things dont fit together. But those definitions arent anywhere to be found. At Norton's request, a fellow political science colleague, Rogers Smith, who while at Yale had chaired that university's undergraduate disciplinary committee, agreed to represent Fierceton during what he called "a very unusual process". I think [its] called Penn First, I believe, and it seems like you socially spent a lot of time with them? Well, Mackenzie, thank you so much for joining me and sharing your story. Theyre not on a website. According to Fierceton, her mother pushed her down the stairs and then beat her extensively at the bottom. So they heard from her and immediately they call you into a meeting with the deputy provost at the time, Beth Winkelstein . Asked by the school's wellness director (who later told police she had seen insulting texts from Morrison on Fierceton's phone) about the reasons for the injuries, Fierceton said that she was "clumsy" but did not offer any details. Mackenzie Fierceton: Yeah. And theres also literature thats economic literature versus sociology, different fields have different perspectives on what that relationship between foster care and the criminal justice system is and what the causes are. Like, I dont have the precise statistics in front of me, but if you asked people to guess at the number of people who will experience, say, two years of poverty in their life, people will miss it by magnitudes. RG: Right. Theres people who span all different kinds of experiences. We dont believe you. [26] In the second, he wrote, "[y]ou could also conclude from Mackenzie Fierceton's story that there is no actual empathy within elite institutions unless you perfectly fit into the trauma hierarchy they have created, which preferences the types of overcoming-adversity stories they can place in a brochure. "[2], That feeling was not mutual, Fierceton came to suspect. "She was falling apart under the academic stresses at school and was exhausted, and I believe looking for an out." She lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital, where she spent three days in intensive care. Theres a lot of chaos. The teacher recalled that she had black eyes and hair matted with blood, a description corroborated by a nurse who saw her on arrival after an ambulance brought her to nearby Mercy Hospital St. Louis. She was . And so was it later, in a different conversation where they asked about the line in the essay about not being able to recognize yourself or is there some illusion to that in the transcript that you found? So therefore that doesnt fit their understanding of low-income, despite the fact that your mother was no longer your legal guardian, youre a ward of the state. [2] Morrison's bond was originally set at $40,000, but lowered to $5,000 over prosecutors' strenuous objections. Like what does Penn say when you tell them: Hey, the Penn official who helped me fill this out said that these are the categories that I fit. Michael Hayes, who had prosecuted Morrison, told the Chronicle that "The more I learned, the less certain I became about what really happened. And its striking to see just the continuing to push of what happened. [2] Her father, Billy Terrell,[1] had been an actor in soap operas. woman who won a coveted scholarship in the US to study at Oxford after claiming she was poor, overcame childhood abuse and grew up in foster care lost the opportunity after it emerged she was. Both reports refrained from expressing an opinion about the truth of her abuse allegations. RG: I think for a lot of us, we have to sort of other poverty and abuse and put it in a box, partly, to protect ourselves. MF: She definitely asked some questions about it. Ryan Grim: This weeks guest on Deconstructed is Mackenzie Fierceton, who was the subject of a recent story in The New Yorker. If youre an independent student, then you should check yes to both boxes. And then I remembered that my teacher had told me to write a gratitude list. As an anonymous letter writer revealed, however, she was also the privately educated child of a radiologist, brought up in an affluent suburb. [4] It took nearly an hour, during which Fierceton seized intermittently and never completely regained consciousness, for her to be taken to the hospital. Now anyone who earns that distinction is to be commended, but the article also noted that Mackenzie had aged out of foster care . That they would forward charges to the federal government of wire fraud. And so, just the immediate reaction was like: Theres no way. Its, in my opinion, because they get overlooked and the kids like me are kind of rendered invisible by the privileges of our biological families. "[I]t was probably from someone in my biological family," she told The Intercept, "because it had photos of me; it had very specific information that very few people would haveand I don't think many people would have random childhood photos of me. "It is seven years later, and I am still having to prove and prove and prove what has happened to me." Now Im sobbing, Im hyperventilating, and the staff member interrupted and said: Can we have an estimate of how much time is left? RG: Who will spend some significant amount of time in poverty. Yes, to my lawyer who communicated it to me. Thats all it takes to support the journalism you rely on. [14], Fierceton and her faculty supporters have suspected that Penn's investigation of her, and its determination to cast aspersions on her credibility, may be related to her role in fomenting a wrongful death suit filed against the university in August 2020, before she had been announced as a Rhodes Scholarship winner. It quotes her as saying "If you find me dead, it was my mom. I have all these three kinds of different rationale and corroborations. But I guess I cant say for sure. And how much confidence do you have that that anonymous complainer was Carrie, your biological mother. And when will you have finished up your Ph.D.? And its funny, cause it just made me so frustrated and I actually went back and read it. Mackenzie Fierceton has lost her Rhodes Scholarship and her University of Pennsylvania master's degree is being held after an anonymous tipster called out alleged inaccuracies in her school. Fierceton had apparently made much of her status as a 'first generation, low income' student, an abuse survivor who aged out of foster care. But it doesnt mean you were always low-income, just that you are now. You know, in my personal experience, there were not very many kids who came from a background like me. And because poverty and abuse are so pervasive in society and particularly in a country that has such a minimal social safety net and has so much violence. [2][e], A spokesman for the D.A. [Laughs.]. Am I right about that? She bounced from one foster home to the next. ", However, in its report, Penn notes that Fierceton had, in an essay (which it allows may not have actually been submitted) for her application for a travel, The Rhodes report acknowledged her documentation of an email she wrote to a reporter at the, Penn's investigation noted that even if Fierceton had been referring to the Chesterfield police rather than the. Morrison then brought suit in circuit court to have the board's decision reviewed and reversed. A Rhodes Scholar who claimed that she had grown up in the foster system has lost her scholarship after an investigation revealed that she grew up in a middle-class family and attended a $30,000-per-annum private school. Its a very under-researched field. When they did, they were unable to get stretchers or backboards down Caster's stairways or elevators as there was insufficient space. Right. But I agreed to come into this Zoom meeting and this was the last day of November 2020. [2], At the beginning of the next school year, Fierceton was examined by her pediatrician, who noticed a large bruise on her arm but chose not to X-ray it, a decision the doctor later regretted. There were three instances of attempted contact from her family or foster family. [2][4][15], After learning this, Fierceton and a fellow SP2 student began doing research. And so youre becoming rather inconvenient to the university at that point , I would assume, which plays into the way that universities and elite structures think of diversity, I think. And I asked again and just said: Ive had different experiences of harassment for the last four years at Penn. Mackenzie is the soap's first transgender character, added to the series after Stone wrote to executive producer Jason Herbison to pitch the character. Within a year of her arrest, another St. Louis-area hospital had granted her admitting privileges, and she was able to resume her medical career. At first there was actually, there was contention. Its virtually almost an unknown phenomena or to people who are working in the field, its certainly known, but theres been very little research on it, which partially complicates my Ph.D., because theres so little to draw upon. [2][h], In January 2020[4] Fierceton had a seizure and collapsed during a class for one of her graduate social work courses. So it makes some sense that they were very similar questions. Our theme music was composed by Bart Warshaw. There was also the part of me that was terrified. I think they have said, well, theres different definitions and the dean who is the dean of the grad school said: Well, thats not our definition. [2], In December 2021 Fierceton retained another lawyer pro bono and filed her own suit against Penn, alleging that the university's investigations into her history and how she had represented herself was a "sham", undertaken with the intent of forcing her to withdraw from the Rhodes Scholarship and damaging her credibility as a witness in the Driver suit, constituting tortious interference with a business relationship and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. So that was what the actual poem and personal statement was about [laughs.] Or is this something thats been overlooked? And she quickly got interest of a book deal because she was obviously such a great writer. And that is, I felt very defeated too. Uh, my lawyer. He was earlier arrested in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Have you ever heard of her case? And do you know Linda Tirado? Fierceton's mother's supporters have maintained that her daughter was an emotionally manipulative girl who injured herself and fabricated other aspects of the abuse in order to become a more appealing candidate for admission to an Ivy League college such as the University of Pennsylvania. She got straight A's, served in student government, managed the field hockey team, played varsity soccer, and volunteered to assist with the local Special Olympics. So Rachel had it and Penn disputed it. Mackenzie Fierceton has lost her Rhodes Scholarship and her University of Pennsylvania master's degree is being held after an anonymous tipster called out alleged inaccuracies in her school and scholarship applications.NY Post photo composite And I ended up reading the comments, and the comments were just horrendous. That night at home, Morrison, who had apparently learned of the report, confronted her daughter about it. RG: And how much did she challenge your medical condition after that beating? She ruined her moms career. It's a hard scholarship to win, but Fierceton. And because poverty and abuse are so pervasive in society and particularly in a country that has such a minimal social safety net and has so much violence. Morrison's name was therefore ordered removed from the DSS registry. RG: Interesting. But that was definitely a driving force for why I decided, ultimately, to withdraw because I felt like: OK, federal prison is no joke. RG: And The New Yorker article also alluded to a few things that you had gotten loose with in a couple of paragraphs. The Inquirer story came out in November 2020. She arrives as a new student at Erinsborough High School and is connected to the . In early 2022, after stories about her struggle with Penn and the Rhodes Trust received national attention from stories in The Chronicle of Higher Education and The New Yorker, commentators took the university, and American elite higher education in general, to task for its use of the story of Fierceton and some other recent Rhodes recipients as poverty porn and its shifting definition of an FGLI student. And they released this quote-unquote report in April of 2021 with their findings. She, to my knowledge, has stuck by that. woman who won a coveted scholarship in the US to study at Oxford after claiming she was poor, overcame childhood abuse and grew up in foster care lost the opportunity after it emerged she was. So normally the term FGLI, its just an umbrella term for both. Later, another Whitfield parent Morrison had talked to told this woman that she believed Fierceton had done this to get admitted to an Ivy League college, an idea which she found preposterous. Whereas white parents, a lot of times, it is much harder the bar is much higher to remove them from their homes because their whiteness or possibly class privilege or whatever identities that they have that might not fit a social worker or judges or whoevers involved perception of whose kids should be in the foster system. She has a bachelor's degree in political science from Penn and was working on a master's in social work. Yeah, it was, things like that where I simplified all of these foster kids that youre living with a biological family who have kids, which I would say are foster siblings. I wasnt there for all of this, but after I went through all these interviews, that was my conclusion. 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