Hope House by Jordyn

Hope House by Jordyn - April 2022 Scholarship Essay

Priceless is the name of a movie that starred my favorite singers Joel and Luke Smallbone. I originally saw the movie simply for them, but that move lit a fire in me. Priceless portrays the story of a woman and her daughter who are stuck in a sex trafficking ring. After watching the movie I felt so infuriated on how people in the world aren’t doing more against this, at the time I was in 8th grade so there was only so much 13 year old me could do until my school started a new program
The Capstone project was a new standard that my school had introduced, it basically was a self paced project that could be about almost anything with a few restrictions. After watching the movie I knew that I wanted to do something about the sex trafficking issue starting in my own town and this project was the perfect place to start. So I got to thinking and I realized that in not my town but one twenty minutes away there was a safe house for women who have no place to live, which included women who had been part of trafficking. This house also had a thrift store called Hopeful Treasures where all proceeds went to this program.
To learn more for my project I began volunteering at Hopeful Treasures. My jobs included folding clothes, sweeping, serving at banquets, labeling, putting together baby bottles, and many other things. The more I volunteered the more horrible stories I heard from the woman affected by domestic violence, trafficking, and many other hardships. One of the most valuable things that I learned from being there was how powerful just sitting and listening can be. Sometimes the woman had no one else to talk to and to be there and listen and make them feel like they are being heard really changed things. Although I was only 13 I couldn’t go out and put these bad people in jail, but I could be there for the people that needed it.
As I have grown up and am now 17 I try to continue to remember that listening to people can change lives in any situation. At first folding clothes at the thrift store was not my favorite pastime, but the lessons and knowledge I learned from it were irreplaceable.