Raising Awareness by Claudia

Raising Awareness by Claudia - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

Anywhere between 21 and 30 million people are enslaved around the world; the US alone has 60,000 victims (Free the Slaves). Slavery is not legal anywhere, yet it still happens everywhere. The moment I watched a video about trafficking it became a cause I was determined to help. I spent hours researching ways I could help make a difference and raise awareness about this real-life nightmare. I decided I could make the biggest impact by starting a club on campus.
A non-profit organization called Free the Slaves is on a mission to help those affected by human trafficking. I contacted them conveying my interest in creating a club to raise awareness about human trafficking and they allowed me to create a club under its name.
On the board of directors, my position is Event Planner and Publicity. As Event Planner, I am responsible for planning when we have general meetings, when we invite guest speakers, and when we hold fundraisers. As publicity, I create posters and flyers to promote our events. For our first general meeting of the year, I invited a guest speaker from the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force. To make sure that everything was in order for this event I guided the board members by speaking to each individual and determining everyone’s strongest suit and assigning them to a task that they could accomplish the best. Speaking to our club advisor I discussed my plan and asked if we could hold the meeting in her classroom. She agreed to it heartily and I began to work on promoting the event. I painted posters and created countless flyers in anticipation for the event. By collaborating with the treasurer, we were able to budget for snacks for the event. Everything was going smoothly, and I was excitedly anticipating the day the speaker would come.
The meeting was a success. Every board member executed his or her task flawlessly. Due to my effective promotions, many students came and we gained many new members. We were able to spread awareness about human trafficking.