Sun Gate Foundation sole purpose is providing access to education for survivors of human trafficking. We strongly believe education is one avenue survivors can reclaim their lives and live a life they imagine. Our CEO Shamere McKenzie is living proof that survivors can reclaim their lives through education. On May 8, 2015 she graduated with her B.S. in Criminal Justice & Criminology. This milestone was covered by CBS Chicago and you can read/watch the full story here.
If anyone knows the words persistence and hard work, it’s our CEO Shamere McKenzie. As Loyola is preparing for graduation next week, four graduates were highlighted and Shamere was one of them.
Click here to read the featured story on Loyola’s website.
Meet Shamere McKenzie, the recently-appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Sun Gate Foundation, a national organization focused on providing support to survivors of human trafficking who wish to gain access to private, continuing, and/or higher education. Why is this mission important to Shamere? Because she herself was once a victim of sex trafficking, and as a young adult pursuing a college education, she has had to overcome many obstacles.
“As a survivor, I know firsthand the stigma and difficulties faced by survivors of sex trafficking,” Shamere says, “And, as the recipient of the first Sun Gate Foundation scholarship, I am a walking example to other survivors that they too can pick up the broken pieces and live a life of their choosing.” Click here to read the entire article written by Holly Smith.
Shamere McKenzie of the Sun Gate Foundation talked with York College students Tuesday about how the sex trafficking industry is able to thrive. (SEAN COTTER — scotter@yorkdispatch.com)
“You’re smart — how could you be trafficked?”
“It’s a question Shamere McKenzie has faced from everyone from the crowds to whom she’s told her story to the judge who sentenced her to time in jail.
“On Tuesday night, she took the stage in front of a packed auditorium at York College to tell her story — that of a survivor of the expansive American underground sex-trafficking industry, using her own tale to drum up support for the anti-trafficking cause and show that question isn’t the right one to ask.” Click here to read the first article
York College
“Throughout the talk, she emphasized one point: people have to be the change they want to see in the world. She encouraged the audience to stand up for what they believe in no matter how hard it seems because it only takes one person to start a life changing movement.”
Click here to read the second article
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