IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 22, 2007
CONTACT: Gordon Ovenshine:

Office: 724.738.4854

Cell: 724.991.8302

gordon.ovenshine@sru.edu

SRU freshman’s online slavery retrospective wins awards

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Justin Brown, a Slippery Rock University freshman, has received several awards for “The Real Enslavement,” a Web site he co-created that examines the legacy and enduring problem of human slavery. 

            “People don’t have the right mindset of what slavery was and is,” said Brown, of Coatesville. “It’s about economics, greed and cruelty. Slavery still exists. It’s just called by other names such as ‘human trafficking.’”

            Most recently, the Web site earned Brown a 2007 Best of Trio and Honorable Mention Trio Special Recognition awards from TRIO ThinkQuest International, a Web site building competition for middle and high school students.  Those awards followed three earlier gold medals and a $1,000 scholarship he earned in regional ThinkQuest events.

            Brown created the Web site with four other students from the Philadelphia area when they were high school seniors. He will travel to San Francisco Nov. 10-15 to receive the most recent awards and a laptop computer.

            “The Real Enslavement” site covers the trans-Atlantic slave trade with photographs, text, old posters and timelines. Links take browsers to pages on a slave’s life, punishments of slavery and famous blacks and abolitionists. Another section covers modern slavery, sex slavery and mental slavery.

            The trio designed the site for teenage researchers and adults. It includes profiles of freedom-movement leaders William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Beecher Stowe, as well as a site map and annotated bibliography.

            “Even if you’re not African-American, if you don’t know history, you’re going to repeat it. I think that’s definitely true,” Brown said.

            Brown, a psychology major, enrolled at SRU fall 2007. He is a Board of Governors Scholarship recipient. He has joined several leadership programs, including Freshman Leadership, Jump Start, Building Bridges and the Chosen Generation Gospel Choir. He also appears in an SRU television commercial airing during Pittsburgh Penguins games.

            He plans to become a counselor or private-practice psychologist. 

            “The Real Enslavement” is at http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/01071/homeframe.htm

Slippery Rock University is Pennsylvania’s premier public residential university. Slippery Rock University provides students with a comprehensive learning experience that intentionally combines academic instruction with enhanced educational and learning opportunities that make a positive difference in their lives.