Names (from left to right): Marylu Gomez, Kelsey Kinnebrew, Vanessa Rodgers, Ana Carbonell
Majors: Sociology, Sociology, Public Administration, Psychology
Years: Junior, Junior, Junior, Senior
Her Campus (HC): So you all are starting a movement here on FSU’s campus involving sexual assault! What else are you all involved in on campus?
Ana Carbonell (AC): Outside of this, I do a lot of research for the psychology department. Right now, I’m working on social and cognitive research dealing with teaching math to college students. Besides that, I am in leadership in the Oscar Arais Sanchez Hispanic Honor Society.
Kelsey Kinnebrew (KK): I’m not really involved with anything academically awesome like, you know, Ana, but I’m the social chair for 30/60, which is FSU’s premier sketch comedy troupe. I am also heavily involved in the swing dance club. That’s about it!
Marylu Gomez (MG): I’m a transfer, so I’m not really involved in anything on campus.
Vanessa Rodgers (VR): I’m a transfer as well, so I haven’t had the opportunity to get involved in campus organizations yet.
HC: Where did you all meet?
KK: We all met in Dr. Cheryl Smith McFarland’s Violence Against Women class.
AC: By fate and chance we sat by each other and instantly connected.
KK: Oh and also, Marylu always laughed at my jokes. So I instantly liked her.
HC: Why did you all decide to do this project together?
AC: We all sat together in class and formed a friendship, but we also had similar outlooks on certain topics in the class. So when our professor assigned this project, we automatically formed our group together.
HC: What is your video, “Amplify Her Voice” all about?
AC: This video’s main focus is to raise awareness to the problem of victim blaming, question the rhetoric used, and then challenge college campuses and society as a whole to change the script and ask the real questions that need to be asked. This video is important because it not only talks to potential victims and perpetrators, but it also talks to everyone in-between who feel like they can’t be touched by this subject.
KK: I personally believe the best way to promote social change is by changing the rhetoric of how subjects are talked about. What we are trying to do with this video is change the way people talk about sexual assault and violence against women, especially on college campuses. We want to express that it is not the victim’s fault.
AC: Nor is it the responsibility of the potential victim to prevent an attack from occurring. It is not the victim’s decision to put themselves in a vulnerable position, but rather it is the perpetrator’s responsibility to know that assaulting someone is not okay.
VR: We also wanted to bring a point of justice for victims. We wanted to make sure we weren’t putting any blame on the victims, but rather on the perpetrators. We wanted to put the idea out that the attackers should take responsibility for their actions and have repercussions for their decisions to attack women, rather than them getting off and having all of the weight placed on the victim.
KK: Yeah, so we just wanted to educate people on this subject. We thought this was a really good way to enact social change. Anything you do can help.
MG: This video also is a call to action to universities, that they shouldn’t protect perpetrators the way they do. They should listen and protect the victims.
HC: What do you all plan to do with this video?
AC: There are a couple things that we want to do with the video. We wanted to put on an educational event on advocacy that has speakers and a panel of experts to talk about the subject in an intimate setting with college students, especially incoming freshmen. We also showed the video to the producer of “The Hunting Ground” and she absolutely loved it. She said it was extremely powerful and moving, and she is going to show it to the director of the film to potentially put it as a precursor to the movie. Dr. McFarland also wants to spearhead a project on campus through her students to show “The Hunting Ground” and have one specific keynote speaker and a week of events pertaining to sexual assault education and awareness. The earliest we want to do all of this is by fall of 2015.
KK: We definitely want to give people a sense of safety and understanding with this video if they are victims, and show that they can come forward with their stories and have a support system from our campus. If that is all this video does, I will be a very happy woman. But, we plan on doing way more and promoting this video to bring it to its full potential.
HC: Did you see “The Hunting Ground” and how did you feel about the movie being a precursor to discussions of sexual assault?
KK: Yes, we all saw the movie, and I think that it is a film that has received a lot of publicity, especially in Tallahassee.
AC: Negative and positive.
KK: Yeah, mostly negative from the university, which I think is strange. But I definitely think that if people see the film, it will open their eyes to the issue about the way universities and institutions handle sexual assaults. So, I think it is a great platform to enact change and a great movie for anyone to see. It is a clear call to action.
MG: This movie shocked me because it showed statistics representing the number of sexual assaults reported versus the number of expulsions. The amount of expulsions, for the universities showcased in the film, could be counted on one of my hands. This is being compared to hundreds of sexual assault reports.
AC: I went to see the movie in Tallahassee when there was a Q&A with the director, and my main take-away from it was that everyone knows that sexual assault is wrong. It’s common knowledge that we should teach men not to rape, yet it is still a “should have, could have, would have” scenario. It needs to be something that we as a society HAVE to do. I think that “The Hunting Ground” takes a huge issue and makes it a tangible issue that can be changed with each individual taking a stand.
HC: What are your aspirations after school? Will you all be working with sexual assault issues?
VR: I would love to carry this forward long after graduation. I want to forward the message of our PSA to other groups of people as well, including the Black community. I want to be a source of information for individuals who need assistance, whether they are victims or know of victims.
AC: I fortunately landed a job with the Crisis Counseling Hotline where I deal with issues that are connected with the Refuge House, which is the sexual assault and domestic violence shelter for women here in Tallahassee. When it comes to grad school, I plan on studying something pertaining to this issue and I will definitely be advocating for these issues for the rest of my life.
MG: I am very interested in becoming a profiler for people that have raped individuals. I want to get to the root of why they do what they do to people. I also want justice for victims of all types of assault.
KK: What I really want to do is teach health education, specifically sex education in schools. I think it’s a great way to bring awareness of issues in sexual relationships and sexual identity. When it comes to women, I feel like their sexuality is put into a box and I want to be an advocate for letting them express their sexuality the way they want to, not the way society expects them to.
If you or someone you know is in need of assistance contact:
-Refuge House: 850-681-2111 (Local), 888-956-7273 (Sexual Assault), 800-500-1119 (Toll Free)
-National Hotline for Domestic Violence: 1-800-799-7233
-Florida Hotline for Domestic Abuse: 1-800-500-1119 or
-Dial 2-1-1 to be connected to your local crisis hotline
Other members who were involved in the production of this video: Genesis Cuellar, Christopher Bartel, Spencer Toledo