Natalie Weiss, senior hospitality management major and social media director of Knights of the RELM, holds UCF’s Center for the Study of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Annual Report at the Knights of the RELM tabling at the Rosen campus on Nov. 18.
Bryanna Valderrama
An organization at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management is working to ensure students stay informed and engaged in ongoing prevention and awareness efforts ahead of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month in January.
Knights of the RELM, a student organization under UCF’s Center for the Study of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, focuses on their mission to be service leaders through events focused on impact, legacy, development and sustainability.Â
The organization recently held a tabling in late November to encourage students to learn and take action against the human trafficking crisis.Â
Frankie Pepe, vice president of Knights of the RELM, explained why it is important for students to join or volunteer.
“The time-sensitive nature of it is that January currently is our most busy time of the year, so right now is a very advantageous time for students to get involved,” Pepe said. “They also get a bit of the training we’re familiar with for the actual source material we work with, so that once January rolls around, students who are interested can be prepared to be very hands-on and involved.”
Pepe emphasized that human trafficking has a significant connection to the hospitality management industry, so the conferences and events the organization focuses on cater to educational safety within the industry, such as the Red Sand Project.Â
Pepe explained that the Red Sand Project is an art installation in which members go to campus with cracks in the ground and pour dyed red sand into them to symbolize victims of human trafficking who may be falling through the cracks of society.
Natalie Weiss, senior hospitality management major and social media director, shared a goal that the organization wants to work on. Â
“The issue we want to tackle on is the student engagement and how aware they are, and how they can bring that into their working environments in their knowledge to share with others,” Weiss said.Â
Weiss explained that she is looking forward to a new simulation that is being developed by HTMS and its partners — one that will deepen students’ understanding of human trafficking and teach them just how widespread it is, as well as the signs to watch for in real-world situations.
Weiss emphasized that the simulation is being designed in a way that remains both ethical and sensitive to the subject matter.
While Knights of the RELM is working hard to get more students involved in local events, Pepe said that HTMS higher-ups are pushing for a new initiative that has recently passed through the Florida Senate.
According to the Local Funding Initiative Request, the project will create an advanced, scalable and effective AI-based monitoring tool for law enforcement to combat the demand for human trafficking activity by monitoring and analyzing buyers’ online search behaviors.