Cincinnati, Ohio, May 13, 2016 – Students at Saint Ursula Academy recently held a “Fashion Revolution” day for their peers to bring awareness to ethically sourced fashion items in the clothing industry. Students Emilie Kilfoil ’17 of Anderson Township and Kate Bachman ’17 of Montgomery led the event and presented clips from a recent movie “The True Cost”, which highlights poor working conditions and low wages for clothing factory workers in third world countries. After sharing the clips and discussing the stories of the women featured in the movie, the leaders encouraged students to watch the movie in its entirety and reflect upon the way their clothing was made.
To show their support for the event, Saint Ursula Academy students wore their shirts inside-out, with tags showing to highlight the brand of clothing they were wearing and supporting. Students were then asked to research the particular brand appearing on their tag to determine whether or not their clothing had been made using acceptable fair trade practices.
Emilie and Kate plan to continue to pursue their passion to bring awareness to fair trade/ethically sourced items available in the United States. They both recently attended a conference at the United Nations which focused on this topic and are working to ensure that the UN offers fairly traded items in their gift shop. Additionally, they are working with the Saint Ursula Academy Spirit Shop to offer fairly traded uniform items to students.
St. Ursula Academy is a Catholic, college-preparatory, secondary school for young women known for academic excellence and rich tradition. St. Ursula welcomes students from more than 70 grade schools in the Greater Cincinnati area. In 2002 the Academy was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a Blue Ribbon School. The campus, located at 1339 E. McMillan Street in East Walnut Hills has been the home of St. Ursula Academy and Convent since 1910. The Class of 2015 earned college scholarships totaling more than $19-million.
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Photo Caption: Saint Ursula Academy Juniors Emilie Kilfoil of Anderson Township and Kate Bachman of Montgomery led the “Fashion Revolution” which was recently held on campus to bring awareness to fairly traded clothing items.