Vincent Halsey Joins CNY Freedom Makers

2012 Oct 31

Students are frequently involved in the world outside the classroom, particularly when there is a chance to help make a difference in the world. Professor Laurie Selleck's "Protest and Propaganda" class at Cazenovia College joined with a local cause, CNY Freedom Makers, creating posters to raise awareness about modern day slavery, and raising funds for an anti-slavery effort in Manila, Philippines. In addition, they are bringing the campaign back to campus.

Selleck's students submitted 12 posters, and of the seven posters accepted by CNY Freedom Makers, six were designed by Cazenovia College visual communications students, including Vin Halsey, Jessica Lacelle, Paul Roberts, Joshua Skibbee, Noelle Sippel and Kathryn Wheeler.

Vincent T. Halsey, of Oneida, N.Y., is a sophomore majoring in visual communications specializing in graphic design, who graduated from Stockbridge Valley Central Schools in Munnsville, N.Y.

The students were dismayed at the magnitude of the problem, and surprised that it isn't in the forefront of mainstream awareness. Halsey says, "I wanted to do this poster to raise awareness about human trafficking and to combat sex trafficking. I am deeply influenced by simple designs of posters. I think a poster with very few elements can be just as effective as a photograph. My statement 'humans are not products' will make someone think, 'What do you do with products? Buy, use and discard.' Humans are treated like this all over the world, to me there is something wrong with that." Images of their posters and their comments about the issue and their poster designs are on the CNY Freedom Makers website: www.cnyfreedommakers.org.

Selleck, professor and director of the Visual Communications Program at Cazenovia, says, "My students and I attended an event at Syracuse University's Hendricks Chapel, sponsored by the CNY Freedom Makers, where their posters were sold. Greg Darley, author of Passion is Not Enough, presented a talk about The Fight Against Modern Day Slavery." Selleck notes, "The Visual Communications Club wants to carry this on with the CNY Freedom Makers – they have started a 'Loose Change to Loosen Chains' campaign on the Cazenovia College campus."

CNY Freedom Makers, in partnership with International Justice Mission (IJM), will financially support a comprehensive justice initiative through the IJM Manila Field Office with the goal of raising $100,000.

Support from the Central New York Freedom Maker Campaign will help send undercover investigators into brothels to collect evidence to show police where young girls are being offered for sale for sex; help send rescue teams and police to rescue these girls; provide social workers to walk with the victims during counseling and recovery; and help fund lawyers to build cases against pimps and traffickers.

On Saturday, Nov. 3, the posters will be displayed, and for sale to benefit the CNY Freedom Makers campaign, at an open house at Cape Cod Cottage on Palmer Road in Cazenovia, which was a station on the Underground Railroad in the 1880s. The student work was displayed at ArtRage Gallery in Syracuse through November 5. Among the CNY Freedom Makers team members is Cazenovia College alumna, Emma Voigt, who is working with AmeriCorps VISTA Northside Urban Partnership, in Syracuse, N.Y.

Cazenovia College, founded in 1824, is an independent, co-educational, baccalaureate college near Syracuse, N.Y., offering a comprehensive liberal arts education in an exceptional community environment, with academic and co-curricular programs devoted to developing leaders in their professional fields. Cazenovia, named one of "America's Best Colleges" by U.S. News & World Report, is also a national College of Distinction. For more information, visit www.cazenovia.edu.