Last week, four seniors from Boston Trinity Academy, Sadie Elliott-Hart, Phoebe Linnell, Danielle McConnell, and Emma Spence, attended a conference in Boston, entitled "Ending Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking." They joined BTA faculty member Dr. Mike Milway. The conference was hosted by the Imago Dei Fund (IDF) and held on the 35th floor of the Hancock Tower.
IDF Founding Partner and Trustee Emily Jones and Managing Partner Lisa Jackson brought together nearly fifty select people, including not-for-profit professionals, trafficking survivors, generous funders, engaged scholars, and interested students, for a two-hour conference.
In the first presentation, Jeremy Floyd, Executive Director of 10 Thousand Windows, described his organization's work to empower victims in south east Asia. They help women not only to survive their oppression, but to rediscover their dignity in a safe, healthy, sustainable alternative circumstance, which they've learned includes, above all, education and employment.
The second presentation, by Lisa Goldblatt Grace, Co-Founder and Executive Director of My Life My Choice, brought the conversation closer to home. My Life My Choice focuses on sex trafficking in eastern Massachusetts.
During the Q&A session, Boston Trinity Academy senior Dani McConnell asked how high school students in Boston might help make a difference. Her question was so elegant and articulate, both humble and impassioned, that everyone in the audience turned to the back row to find out who the professional sounding high school student was.
Our BTA students made such an impression. After the conference and while networking with professionals, they received unsolicited offers from Boston based experts to come speak at BTA. Some even received offers of internships at the NGOs working in the sector.
BTA is very proud of these four young women.