Advocating for Change

Ros Thackurdeen lost her son, Ravi, in April 2012 while he was studying abroad in Costa Rica. (Read his story here.) Since his death, she has been working with ClearCause to conduct research and investigations to find out what happened to her son and what could have done to prevent his death.

There are no rules or regulations that protect students when they are abroad. Ros started reaching out to state legislators to make change. “I couldn’t sleep at night so I would Google information about study abroad programs and sanctions,” Ros said. She made packages of information including stories of other students who have died to send to state legislators to bring awareness to this problem. “So many have died,” she said. “I kept finding more and more stories of students who have died, who have been injured, who have been raped, who have been assaulted, who have been murdered overseas.”

Ros applied for and was accepted as a ClearCause Advocate because her goals aligned with ClearCause's: to keep students safe as they study abroad.

This fall, ClearCause was given the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. ClearCause founder Sheryl Hill and Ros visited the offices of Senator Gillibrand and Governor Andrew Cuomo to advocate for safety regulations for students who study abroad. ClearCause directed the engagements there.

Sheryl and Ros also met with VTV Family Outreach Foundation, an organization that provides campus safety advocacy and campus violence victim support after the April 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech. ClearCause collaborates with this organization to lobby for laws to keep college students safe and protect students on campuses. “We want to become stronger,” Ros said.