Dr. Susan Mapp, along with three Elizabethtown College students, has been working on a think tank known as Thinking about Gender, Sex and Sexuality (TAGSS) in an effort to educate children and adults in the community on domestic minor sex trafficking.
Think tanks are a new initiative at the College this year. There are currently two: Children and Families Think Tank and TAGSS. These think tanks are designed to enhance the signature learning experience at the College. They encourage students to think on a grander scale through conducting research projects about various topics.
This year, TAGSS is focusing on domestic minor sex trafficking, but TAGSS can study an array of subject matters and the topic re- searched will vary from year to year.
Another part of the TAGSS experience is being involved in Brown Bag seminars. Students and faculty members meet to discuss the research they have been doing and some of their findings. The somewhat informal setting facilitates open discussion of ideas and suggestions.
The eventual goal of this think tank is to create a program similar to Called to Lead in which students can attend these Brown Bag seminars and participate more actively in the think tank in order to receive a certificate that displays their knowledge in a specific area of study that they were able to obtain from this experience. “Our goal is also to be creating an atmosphere where students can be engaging with some of these bigger issues relating to our particular theme of
gender, sex and sexuality,” Mapp said. Domestic minor sex trafficking is an area that Mapp has been studying for a few years now. She is working with senior social work major Alex Ochs, senior occupational therapy major Abby Mitchell and sophomore
sociology major Samantha Poremba.
Part of the mission statement of the TAGSS think tank is to “encourage interdisciplinary understanding of these topics through a variety of methods of analysis, including those from the humanities, physical and social sciences and professional studies,” hence the variety of majors, genders and ages of participating students. This team of three students have been doing research since school
began in the fall.
Not only will they be presenting at
Scholarship and Creative Arts Day (SCAD), but they are also working on a paper to be
published. They also attended a conference on domestic minor sex trafficking in Washington, D.C. last semester and have put together a presentation for middle school students based on the research they conducted. They chose middle school students as their audience because students in middle school are the targeted age for being persuaded into sex trafficking.
These presentations provide students with information on how kids are typically lured into it, what to watch out for and general information about sex trafficking. Ochs, Mitchell and Poremba will be presenting to a private school in Harrisburg, the Church of the Brethren and various youth groups and classes here at Etown. Ochs, who is currently doing a placement at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender center in Harrisburg, will be presenting to them as well.
