On Tuesday, February 17, my Socia\l Justice Group and I met with Ileana Jimenez at Elisabeth Irwin High School. Ileana is feminist teacher at EI. She is also very involved in LGBTQ/Women’s Rights. When Maxine, Campbell and I (Celia was absent) arrived at the high school, Ileana greeted us in the lobby and led us to the room where we would be having our discussion. We made sure to express how appreciative we were that she was taking the time out of her busy schedule to talk to us. We were a little worried because  we were stumped on what to ask Ileana. We had already learn most of what there is to know about sex trafficking, but what else did we want to get out of the interview? We decided that we wanted to discuss more about activism/social justice as opposed to sex trafficking specifically. Once we started talking, the conversation became very casual. Ileana talked about how she became and activist and what we can do after the Social Justice Project regarding activism. After the discussion, we thanked Ileana and gave her details about the day of our Teach-In. She seemed impress by all the work we as a group have done and how devoted we are to the Sex Trafficking Social Justice Topic.

One thing that was different about this interview was that Ileana was the one who was more or less conducting it. Ileana was very interested in learning about our teach-in and what feedback she could give to us. Although this  was not how we expected the interview to go, if ended up being more helpful and crucial the the final outcome of our Social Justice Workshop. Ileana also made it clear that activist work can entail as little as raising awareness around your school. Although volunteering and directly helping victims of sex trafficking is important, raising awareness is also a powerful. Sex trafficking will never come to an end if people do not understand what it is and why it is wrong. Overall, I was truly inspired along with my group members after our discussion. Speaking with such a powerful activist made us realize that there is so much more to social justice than this project. There is no limit to the amount of social justice work we do.