CSE Institute Director, Shea M. Rhodes, and Faculty Advisor, Michelle M. Dempsey, are delighted to welcome eight student externs to advance the work of the CSE Institute during the Fall 2015 semester. Four of our student externs – Gina Cautilli, Allison Crowe, Brooke Razor, and Sarah Robinson – are returning for a second semester – and will play an advanced role in taking on more complex projects and assisting the new student externs as they learn about the laws and policies concerning commercial sexual exploitation in Pennsylvania and beyond. They will be joined by our four new student externs – Shadia Combs, Meghan Farley, Alexandria (“Ali”) Murphy, and Effi Taylor. As one of our new student externs explained during our first business meeting, “I joined the CSE Institute because I wanted to remember why I came to law school in the first place — to help people, to make a real difference in the world.”
Our student externs will be working on a variety of projects, providing training, technical assistance and administrative support to our partners, including the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Office of Child and Youth Services, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime & Delinquency, the Northeast Regional Child Advocacy Center, and The Valley Against Sex Trafficking (The VAST). They will also continue their work advocating Safe Harbor legislation in Pennsylvania. (Click here to see our policy paper regarding Safe Harbor PDF: 51KB), and encouraging stakeholders in Philadelphia to join the CEASE Network, a growing national movement of cities that are focusing on deterring the demand for commercial sexual exploitation. Further, our externs will work on projects designed to increase the statute of limitations for survivors of commercial sexual exploitation, and will collaborate with The David F. and Connie B. Girard di-Carlo Center for Ethics, Integrity, and Compliance, to create a program aimed at ensuring that hotels and other business in the hospitality industry throughout Pennsylvania comply with anti-trafficking provisions in federal, state, and local law.
Please join us in welcoming this new group of CSE Institute student externs!