Zack Porter is a third year at UVa, and a co-founder of the International Justice Mission at UVA. On the day before classes let out for Spring Break, IJM at UVA joined with the national IJM chapter in their Stand for Freedom movement. Students took turns standing for 27 hours to advocate for ending modern day slavery. Although snow was still on the ground from the freak blizzard that caused chaos and cancelations of before break exams, Porter stuck it out in the cold for 26 of the 27 hours.
Year: 3rd Year
Major: Economics and Music, recently accepted to the Batten School’s accelerated masters program.
1. What is IJM and Stand for Freedom?
International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that brings rescue to victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. Stand for Freedom is a nationwide campaign with the purpose of increasing awareness and educating young adults about the scope of the issue, raising funds to support the numerous lawyers who tirelessly fight on behalf of the oppressed, and taking action by garnering signatures for a petition asking President Obama to commit his second term to confronting and eradicating modern slavery at home and abroad.
2. What did Stand for Freedom mean to you?
To me, Stand for Freedom is a statement. It was an opportunity for me to make it very clear that I won’t be idle, but do what I can to bring justice to the world. Some people have asked, “But what does simply standing really DO?” And that’s when I bring up the fact that we raised over $2,700.
3. Why did you chose to stand for 26 hours?
I chose to stand for 26 hours for a couple practical reasons and as well as the reasons stated above (what it means to me). The more practical reasons were that I felt that more people were likely to sign up to stand if they knew someone was standing for almost the entire time. Also I wanted to make sure that someone would be there at every hour, including the early morning hours, and the strongest guarantee of that is to be there myself. Apart from all that though, it was a sort of a solidarity thing, not only showing my support for the oppressed, but also in support of those standing across the country. Too long have we been idle. It’s time for our generation to stand for something.
4. What kind of impact do you hope Stand for Freedom had on grounds?
With our chapter being so young, I didn’t have too many visions of grandeur, but I did hope for it to be a great opportunity for us to get our name out into the UVA community, as well as the larger Charlottesville community. Hopefully that will garner more support and involvement in future events.