Smith says he suggested that Dor- Smith says he traveled to Haiti and presented to the U.S. Deputy Ambassador and the Haitian Truth Commission several petitions which Dorsainvil had collected from fellow students in Adams House. He says the petitions "made a tremendous difference" in spurring investigation efforts. "I praise what she's done because I don't think it's easy in the midst of losing your parents in such a brutal manner to persevere," he says. Smith says he now uses Dorsainvil's story as an example in a course that he teaches about human rights. "She's a real model to me," he says. Aftermath Nearly eight months later, the repercussions of her parents murder still reverberate through Dorsainvil's life. "I have all my mail forwarded to me," she says. "I'll get mail 'To the Parents of Cynthia Dorsainvil.'" Every time she is reminded of the loss of her parents is painful, she says. Receiving the letter forwarded from the Parents Association announcing Junior Parents Weekend or hearing her roommate talk to her mother brings everything back. "If I hear [my roommate] talking to her mother, like 'Hi, Mommy, I love you,' it's just like 'I gotta get out of here,'" Dorsainvil says. She now resides with her second oldest sister, Bobbie, and her family in Westbury, N.Y. Dorsainvil says she is pursuing the academic plans laid out before the incident. She still plans to attend law school, just as she had told her parents that she would. "It's become more important that you still do stuff in their memory," she says. "I can't take a year off or drop out of school or work or take those shortcuts. That's why they were working so hard." Dorsainvil says she is continuing her pursuit of justice for her parent's killers while simultaneously pursuing the dreams they left behind for her. "I think I still live my life as if they were still there," she says. "I hesitate at certain things because I can hear my father saying 'No way.' They were good parents, wonderful parents.
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