Your Voice | Letters to the editor

Kristof will shed light on sex trafficking To the editor: If you’re looking to enter a $32-billion-a-year industry and make profits that amount to more than Nike, Starbucks and Google combined, the sex trafficking industry is your answer. Think this just happens in poor Southeast Asian countries? You’re wrong. It happens right here in America and right here in Philadelphia. We could tell you stories of rape, brutal abuse and young teenage girls being kidnapped from their own homes. We could tell you stories about the 2.2 million children sold into slavery every year or the approximately 300,000 American youth at risk for sexual exploitation. But, Nicholas Kristof could tell them better. Kristof has used his position as a New York Times columnist to shed light on some of the world’s most neglected yet important issues including human trafficking. He has spent time in 140 countries and devoted his career to the causes he is so passionate about. Kristof has been deemed the “reporters’ reporter” and the “moral conscience of our generation.” To hear his insight into human trafficking we encourage you to join us at Zellerbach Theatre on Monday, March 1st at 7 p.m. to learn more.

Caroline Kassie and Jordan Sale The authors are and College sophomores and the committee chairwomen of the Nicholas Kristof event. Sale is also co-chairwoman of Moral Voices.

Program works to improve diversity To the editor: It was with great interest that we read the article on faculty diversity and the efforts currently underway on campus to achieve this goal (“Faculty tackles lack of diversity”, 2/9/10). We wanted to bring to your attention Penn’s McNair Scholars Program, a long-standing campus initiative aimed at addressing this issue. The McNair Scholars Program identifies and supports academically talented Penn undergraduates interested in obtaining research Ph.D.s who come from several groups currently underrepresented in higher education: students from low-income backgrounds who will be the first in their family to obtain a college degree, as well as black, Latino and Native-American students. The program provides research training, early scholarly experiences, and preparation for the graduate school application process and doctoral study. Penn’s McNair Scholars Program is currently accepting applications from eligible sophomores for its 2010 cohort. This year admission priority will be given to applicants majoring in science, technology, engineering and/or mathematics. Please refer to the McNair Scholars website at vpul.upenn.edu/aap/mcnair for complete eligibility guidelines and application materials. The deadline for applications is March 22, 2010.

Robert Lane and Rebecca Poyourow The authors are the Director and Associate Director of the McNair Scholars Program.

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