Stopping Traffic
As the son of a U.S. diplomat, Will Nugent had to get used to change from a very young age. Born in Paraguay, he then lived in China, Australia, Thailand, Micronesia and Vietnam. As a teenager, Nugent followed his sense of duty and his passion for action to the Persian Gulf, where he enlisted in the infantry battalion of the U.S. Marine Corps and survived two seven-month tours across the blistering dunes of Iraq. After fulfilling his service obligation, Nugent has returned to America to participate in a different kind of fight.
In the summer of 2008, Nugent caught wind of atrocity back in Southeast Asia. It had been roughly seven years since he'd been home, and the heart-wrenching words of a visiting lecturer on campus advocating the "Not For Sale" campaign awakened his resolve. As the speaker addressed the increase in human trafficking in Asia, Nugent identified a likewise increasing angst and torpor in people who "wanted to help" but appeared to prefer sitting around talking about the problem rather than actively pursing a solution.
"That night," the senior religious studies major explains, "I decided that it made a lot of sense not to do nothing."
So he flew to Thailand, where he spent five years of his adolescence and, coincidentally, had had his first encounters with human trafficking.
"If you go downtown in Bangkok," he recounts, "the sex industry is just another part of the tourist industry. The sex trade is overwhelmingly a business and a lucrative one, at that."
"Human nature is at the root of it, just like any enterprise," he adds.
From Thailand, Nugent went to Cambodia, where, upon arriving, he had to decline drugs and, of course, women, as he set out on an uncharted course, following instinct only. Little did he know his hunch would lead him directly into contact with James Pond, a member of a nongovernmental organization called Transitions Global. This organization helps trafficked women by providing them an education, medical treatment, jobs, skills and, ultimately, reintegration into the community from which they were stolen to be forced into prostitution.
"This group isn't proselytizing," Nugent explains. "They're simply trying to make a difference and help these women make what may appear an impossible change."
Nugent came back to the States, and with the help of friend and fellow religious studies major Robert Graham '08, who now lives in Hong Kong, they started a fundraising organization Fight for Others to help support Transitions Global.
"People always ask me, 'What can I do to help from all the way around the world?' Simple," Nugent answers, "give to Transitions Global, in whatever way you can."
As for the skeptics, Nugent suggests they "research other organizations that are well-established, or go and see for yourself."
But the most important thing, according to Nugent, is involvement at any level: "Because this is a fight worth fighting." 
To learn more about Nugent's volunteer project Fight for Others, go online at www.fightforothers.com.