It has taken some getting used to, but Genarlow Wilson says college life is treating him just fine.

Wilson, who was freed from a Georgia prison last October, began classes as a part-time student at the 140-year-old predominantly male liberal arts Morehouse College in Atlanta. The 10-year-old Tom Joyner Foundation is paying for Wilson’s education, including tuition, books and campus room and board.

In 2005, Wilson was convicted of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a 2003 New Year's Eve party. Wilson, a star athlete and honors student, was 17 at the time. He was sentenced to serve a mandatory 10-year sentence with a sex offender designation. After a nationwide effort to fight for his release, Wilson was set free last October after spending two years in prison on the teen sex conviction. The case received international media attention and garnered support from civil rights leaders, celebrities, business leaders and politicians, including former President Jimmy Carter and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

The original law, under which Wilson was convicted, was intended to protect women and children from sexual predators. In an interview last November, Democratic state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, a veteran Georgia legislator and civil rights activist, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that prosecutors found a loophole in the legislation that allowed them to target teenagers having sex.

Wilson and four other young men admitted to detectives that they had sexual intercourse with one teenaged girl and that another had performed oral sex on them at a party involving about a dozen youths at a Douglasville, Georgia hotel. Under Georgia law at the time, oral sex with anyone under the age of 16 could be classified as aggravated child molestation, even if it occurred between consenting teenagers fewer than three years apart in age. The offense carried a mandatory sentence upon conviction of 10 years in prison and a lifetime on the sex offender registry.

Sexual intercourse was, and remains, a misdemeanor under Georgia law. The code governing oral sex was amended in July 2006 to treat consensual oral sex between teenagers no more than four years apart as a misdemeanor, punishable by no more than 12 months in prison with no sex offender registry requirement. The change, however, was not made retroactive, leading to the legal maze that Wilson’s lawyer, B.J. Bernstein, had to navigate to win his freedom.

After his release, Wilson went on a whirlwind of television and radio talk show interviews before he settled down to pursue a more normal life as a college student.

It was the simple things at Morehouse, he said, that were difficult at first, “like how to maintain a schedule. I hadn’t really been in a classroom since 2004 ... how to prepare and what to study for. I had to kind of relearn everything that I once knew.”

Wilson, who has not yet declared a major, said he had some tutoring, and it helped that he had good roommates.

“I was basically surrounded by a whole lot of good people at Morehouse,” Wilson told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “It was like a brotherhood.”

Since he entered as an older student, Wilson was placed in a dorm with upperclassmen instead of a typical freshman residence. Wilson credited those students with helping him get acclimated to college life.

He acknowledged he faced a number of challenges, considering the psychological rollercoaster of wins and losses of various legal appeals before finally being released, followed by the quick transition from inmate to college student.

“It was all a progression, period. I had to get used to doing all the work and studying, but I was inspired to stay in school and study. It was difficult at first, but it’s a lot of good people out there, and I had a lot of support,” Wilson said.

The path hasn't been without its bumps, said Bernstein.

“The Morehouse community has really been a transition for him. Going from being in prison where you are so controlled has been quite an adjustment,” Bernstein told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “It’s going to take time to undo what three years of prison has done.”

It is a typical experience for people leaving prison, she said.

“In prison, there is reliance on being told what to do, and on the other hand, there’s a resentment of being told what to do,” Bernstein said. “I had another client who served 10 years who worked for me for six months after he got out, and you could see that freedom was scary.”

Bernstein said Wilson often has been surprised by how recognizable he is in public and found the attention overwhelming at times.

“We were at lunch once, shortly after his release, and people kept coming up to the table. They meant well, but I don’t think he really knew how many people knew his story.”

His prison experience has left Wilson cautious about social relationships. It will take some time before he becomes comfortable making friends, Bernstein said, but the caring nature of the Morehouse community will be critical -- as has been -- in helping him make that adjustment.

What he likes most about Morehouse, Wilson said, is “everybody tries to carry themselves like leaders.”

This summer, Wilson plans to take some additional classes, but a leisurely break, he said, is not on the horizon.

“I want to take a little vacation," he said, "just so my mind can be at peace and rest a little bit. But I guess that’ll happen sooner or later.”