Sun Gate Foundation Awards Scholarship to Justice Center Client

Gong*came to the United States hoping to study English and eventually become a nurse, but she was ensnared in a sex trafficking ring after responding to a job ad for a Chinese-speaking tour guide. She escaped her traffickers in 2014 and the City Bar Justice Center helped her apply for a T Visa as a victim of trafficking. Her T Visa was approved and Gong was accepted to a nursing program that started in September 2015.

Laura Berger, the Justice Center attorney who represented Gong, helped Gong apply for a scholarship from the Sun Gate Foundation, a scholarship fund led by trafficking survivors. Sun Gate’s mission is to provide survivors of human trafficking with the opportunity to pursue higher education.  On July 5, Gong was notified that she received a $500 scholarship to pay for her textbooks this fall as she enters her second year of nursing school.

“This scholarship will take Gong one step closer to becoming a nurse and having real financial stability,” says Berger. “Cases like Gong’s make it clear that for immigrant trafficking survivors, legal assistance can take them out of a life of pure survival and into one where their dreams are achievable.” Congratulations, Gong!

Gong is a client of the Justice Center’s Trafficking Prevention and Empowerment Program, generously supported by the New York Women’s Foundation.

*Name has been changed