Three inmates from Eastern New York Correctional Facility are reflecting on beating major odds after their debating victory over three of the brightest students from one of America's top Ivy League universities.
The trio - Carl Snyder, Dyjuan Tatro and Carlos Polanco - are part of a debating club which was set up at Bard College under an educational initiative two years ago.
Polanco, a 31-year-old from Queens, New York, who is in prison for manslaughter, said: "We have been graced with opportunity. They make us believe in ourselves."
And, despite arguing for a motion that they firmly disagreed with, the prisoners defeated their Harvard opponents - to loud cheers from the audience.
Since it began, the prisoners have beaten teams from the US Military Academy at West Point and the University of Vermont. But, in what has been described as "like something from a film written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck", the Harvard victory is the biggest of them all.