For his honors thesis, Charles Long wanted to know about power and prisons: “What happens when people are placed in supportive roles instead of positions of power and domination?”  Drawing on both his own and others’ experiences, he concluded that empathy is a skill that must be practiced.  “Like any other muscle, if you don’t use it, it atrophies.” Long, 43, has overcome many obstacles that “could have soured him,” as one of his professors explained. He graduated from Milpitas High School, but an arrest right before he was supposed to leave for the Navy to study nuclear engineering changed the course of his life. Though he maintains his innocence, this triggered a multi-year cycle in and out of jail. Once his parole ended, Long wanted to start anew. He was “surviving,” he said. But after his daughter was born, he wanted to do more. This led him to Berkeley.  “Every day is a new opportunity. Every minute is a new opportunity. Every second is an opportunity,” Long said.  Inspire...