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Service Learning & Civic Engagement

Town Hall Meeting

Town Hall Meeting Image 

Last fall, students from Global Studies and Anthropology courses studying trafficking issues conducted research to understand “what is possible” in their issue area as it relates to regional and global human trafficking concerns. At the Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, November 12, students met in a Dialogue Session with Community Partners serving as Consultants to discuss “what is possible” in their policy area. Students then used realistic policy solutions to create “action plans” outlining possible next steps for themselves and others to influence the future course of the policy issue, during an Action Planning Session. 

This year, on Wednesday November 12th, students will continue to explore these policy concerns in the 2025 Town Hall Meeting. Joining us will be students from Global Studies with Professor Dino Bozonelos, as well as Anthropology courses with Professor Isabelle Placentia and Konane Martinez.

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  • Student Remarks

    Below you will find remarks shared by students regarding their experience partitipating in the 2022 Town Hall Meeting.

    • "That human trafficking depends on us. This is an issue that is our responsibility and nobody will solve it unless we take the necessary steps to take action." 
    • "I was focusing on debt bondage and it did not occur to me that sex work was included. I was mainly focused on psychical labor to like working in brick factories, but I did not know there forced labor in sex work." 
    • "Human trafficking has only been a crime in CA since 2005." 
    • "Not all victims are obvious victims like poorly dressed, illiterate, poor people that a lot of them can be high class, well educated, well off people." 
    • "A majority of sex trafficking is done by people who know the victim, such as a parent trafficking a child, a husband trafficking their wife, etc." 
    • "That social media could play like a double edge sword in promoting that we need to find solutions in human trafficking, but social media can be used by traffickers to find a new target." 

     

    Students TH

    Students creating "action plans" during the Action Planning Session


Keynote Speaker: DA Summer Stephan

DA Summer Stephan

District Attorney Summer Stephan has devoted her life to protecting children and families, providing justice to the most vulnerable, and is a national leader in the fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Summer rose through the ranks fighting for justice in the trenches before San Diego County voters overwhelmingly elected Summer as District Attorney in 2018 and again in 2022. As District Attorney, she leads the second-largest DA’s Office in California, managing a professional staff of 1,000 employees, serving as the People’s Prosecutor for San Diego County and its more than three million residents. Summer leverages her extensive courtroom, management, and leadership experience to set clear public safety priorities in collaboration with law enforcement and the community, keeping San Diego County one of the safest urban regions in the United States. In 2022, Summer was named one of “The Five Best Prosecutors in America,” utilizing evaluation factors of integrity, fidelity to the rule of law, responsible innovations, and community relations.  

Meet the 2025 Policy Consultants (Focus Areas)

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2019 Town Hall Meeting Image

Background on The Town Hall Meeting at CSUSM

Town Hall Meeting

The Town Hall Meeting provides students a public arena for discussing current policy issues with other students, faculty, administrators, and community members. This event is inspired by the Public Sphere Pedagogy. 

Through a series of moderated conversations, which include voices of community-based subject matter experts, students are able to deepen their understanding of certain topics, appreciate how those topics manifest in the public arena, dialogue about potential solutions to community issues, and find more relevance in their learning. Public Sphere Pedagogy is an approach to teaching that moves student research and creative ideas outside of the classroom by embedding a ‘public sphere’ in academic courses, usually during the first year of college. (Chico State)

The Town Hall Meeting at CSUSM is framed around global issues that are of particular concern to our regional community, in partnership with faculty and students in one or more academic departments across campus. For the past few years the global issue discussed at the Town Hall Meeting has been human trafficking.

On November 15, 2017, the first the Town Hall Meeting was framed around global issues that are of particular concern to our regional community. 

Past partnerships have included faculty and students in the departments of Global Studies and Anthropology.

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town hall meeting attendees

town hall speaker