{"id":516,"date":"2020-01-08T17:34:49","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T17:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/?p=516"},"modified":"2020-01-09T17:24:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T17:24:07","slug":"cleaning-up-sex-trafficking-with-chemistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/2020\/featured-stories\/cleaning-up-sex-trafficking-with-chemistry\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleaning Up Sex Trafficking with Chemistry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah O\u2019Connor \u201921 drops a soapy sphere into a large beaker with a plop. Small bubbles, purple and pink, quickly begin cascading up the sides of the beaker creating a whipped souffl\u00e9 of foam that soon escapes the mouth of the beaker and spills onto the countertop. O\u2019Connor laughs with satisfaction as the other students gather to admire the mess they made \u2013 an intentional mess aimed at combatting sex trafficking in Houston.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor along with the other chemistry and biochemistry majors, Sophia Guerrero \u201920, Milton Fernandez \u201921 and post-baccalaureate student Julia Chandler, spent their summer testing and retesting soap recipes. Their work helps a local nonprofit, Elijah Rising, to develop products they can sell in order to aid women who have been rescued from sex trafficking. The soapy mess that spilled onto the counters, a success by all measures, was a bath bomb they developed through their research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the chemistry and I like understanding the science behind the different bath products,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen all these products on the shelves and now I know how to make it in the lab.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Crystal Young <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Milton
Milton Fernandez ’21 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Julia
Julia Chandler, Post-bacc <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sophia
Sophia Guerrero ’20 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sarah
Sarah O’Connor ’21 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

A Connection to Elijah Rising<\/strong><\/p>\n

Students worked under the tutelage of Dr. Crystal Young, assistant professor of chemistry, who first heard about human trafficking from a knitting group at her church. When a friend told her about A 2nd Cup, a coffee shop aimed at educating people about trafficking while using the proceeds to aid its victims, she checked it out and soon found herself an active and involved member. Through her participation there, she learned about Elijah Rising.<\/p>\n

When Young heard about their challenges developing soap for their retail operation, she knew this was an opportunity to share her gifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of time people are asked to donate their legal, social or medical services, which are tools that I don\u2019t have in my tool chest,\u201d Young said. \u201cI am really happy to be able to unite my love for chemistry with this cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

She included her students in the process and allowed them to direct the process of the research and work directly with leadership at Elijah Rising.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave us a bottle of hand soap from the brand Lush and said \u2018this is the gold standard,\u2019 so I passed that along to the students,\u201d Young said. \u201cWithin a couple of days they made something better. I was surprised, this was the fastest I had ever seen research come together.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was uncharted territory for all involved. Young teaches organic chemistry, but being able to venture into formulation chemistry sparked some new ideas and lessons. For the students, working within a new environment and with a new organization brought new experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked learning more about the cause,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cI knew sex trafficking existed, but it was cool to work with people facing it head on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Together they developed formulas for liquid soaps and bath bombs that were economically priced, sourced with natural ingredients and worked well. Additionally, they accomplished this using household tools so people within the Elijah Rising organization could reproduce the products without the use of a specialized chemistry lab.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there for stop-gap measures,\u201d Young said. \u201cIt\u2019s not my job to perform research any more. As a research professor it is my job to facilitate and help students find the resources they need to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elijah Rising<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elijah Rising is a nonprofit whose mission is to end sex trafficking through prayer, awareness, intervention and restoration. Through their online retail and storefront, they sell goods that empower and use the proceeds to provide resources to survivors of sex trafficking. They have recently reopened their intake facility, an 84-acre farm that can house survivors and provide around-the-clock trauma care. Additionally, the women will be given the opportunity to earn money making candles, soaps and other products based on the formulas developed by UST\u2019s student research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students worked under the tutelage of Dr. Crystal Young, assistant professor of chemistry, developed formulas for liquid soaps and bath bombs to help combat sex trafficking in Houston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5,6,153],"tags":[155,198,197,46,157,10],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-accolades","category-featured-stories","category-student-stories","tag-155","tag-crystal-young","tag-elijah-rising","tag-human-trafficking","tag-winter-2019-issue","tag-winter-issue"],"yoast_head":"\nCleaning Up Sex Trafficking with Chemistry - Encounter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.stthom.edu\/encounter\/2020\/featured-stories\/cleaning-up-sex-trafficking-with-chemistry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cleaning Up Sex Trafficking with Chemistry - 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