Whitney Walton, senior international development customized major, making blankets for The Rape Recovery Center with The Tipping Point. Walton is co-founder of The Tipping Point, an on campus club dedicated to human trafficking and sexual assault awareness. Photo by Catherine Blakemore
When Whitney Walton, senior international development major, isn’t in class, she’s out raising awareness for human trafficking and sexual assault and being a mentor as a GriffinQuest Fellow.
Fernando Rivero, Utah Persons in Trafficking Task Force representative, lectured to a class Walton was in last spring. Walton later contacted Rivero expressing her interest in human trafficking prevention and awareness.
“She’s a very socially conscious, very compassionate and concerned person for the social problems of not just Salt Lake City, but she thinks globally, as well,” Rivero said. “Many people look so far globally. She definitely recognized the needs in her own backyard.”
Emma Gillett and Whitney Walton launched The Tipping Point in August of this year. The mission is “to address these issues on our own campus, in our own city, and in our own backyard to be able to find real solutions.” Photo courtesy Westminster Tipping Point
When Walton and fellow student Emma Gillett launched The Tipping Point in August, the mission was “to address these issues on our own campus, in our own city, and in our own backyard to be able to find real solutions.”
Walton said she wants to bring awareness of the locality of these issues.
“Most people think that it’s happening in Southeast Asia or in parts of Africa or maybe in little tiny cities, but they don’t think that it happens in Salt Lake City,” Walton said. “It happens in every single city, every single state and every single country.”
When it comes to being a student, Walton looks back on her Westminster career as an experience that entirely shaped who she is today.
“Westminster has offered me inspiration, connections and passion through an incredible network of exceptional individuals,” Walton said. “Each of these individuals and experiences have helped to shape my values, my passions, and fuel my determination to be someone I can be proud of.”
Walton said her best tip for getting through a Monday morning is to focus on gratitude and list off what to be thankful for.
“Something I take for granted and something I’ve been trying to focus on is I can walk and use my arms and I can drive and I can do so many things with my body,” Walton said. “I just think saying five things that you’re grateful for puts everything into perspective.”
Her other tip for Mondays: reading through a passage from “Tuesdays with Morrie.”
“It’s my favorite book of all time,” Walton said.
