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Anne Templeton Zimmerman Fellows:
The Anne Templeton Zimmerman Fellowships are designed to nurture the future leaders of the anti-slavery movement. They are named after a woman who spent her life fighting persecution.
Aashika Damodar | Fellow 2008
Trafficking in Her Own Town
Aashika Damodar first traveled to India as a college student to research modern day slavery and human trafficking. When she returned home to Berkeley, California she discovered an infamous trafficking case had unfolded across the street from her dorm.
Aashika Vows to Get Survivors Heard
Aashika dove into investigating labor and sex trafficking in the United States. She got other students involved by co-founding STOP the Traffick. Still, she wanted survivors to be heard. The Human Trafficking Survivor’s Quilt Project Aashika created does just that. Each square shares survivors’ deeper experiences. It offers them a way to heal. “Time spent helping survivors gives me confidence in the work I do.” Personal Experience
Aashika herself feels liberated by education and research. She fought hard for a first class education overcoming financial, cultural and gender issues.
She believes everyone deserves to experience the freedom that an education can bring, ‘It personally hurts to see situations of trafficking where young people are robbed of this opportunity and this has become another source of my desire to participate in the fellowship program.’ Her Fellowship
In 2008, Aashika graduated with honors from U.C. Berkeley with degrees in Anthropology and Political Science. She speaks Gujarati, Hindi, Mandarin, and Spanish. As an Anne Templeton Zimmerman Fellow, her focus will be awareness-raising and advocacy campaigns.
Jessica Leslie | Fellow 2008
The Spark Ignited
During her family’s time in Peru, Jessica Leslie saw many situations where extreme poverty made people vulnerable to all sorts of abuses. This ignited Jessica’s passion to fight injustices.
In college, she began studying human rights. Now the exploitation she witnessed during her childhood had a name: slavery. Jessica’s activism first took hold while volunteering for local groups helping survivors. Her close work with former slaves changed her life. She realized she wanted to spend her life working for others’ freedom.
Her Activism
Jessica’s background taught her how crucial it is to get information about trafficking to immigrant communities, in their own languages. She organized a 5-language campaign that posted ads on Seattle buses to explain the warning signs of trafficking. The ads have been so successful that they still run today.
Jessica also led a campus-wide task force that translated anti-trafficking lessons learned at the community level into policy recommendations.
She was hungry to learn more. For the past year, Jessica has traveled around the world to conduct independent research about less commonly recognized forms of modern-day slavery. Her proficiency in Arabic, French, Portuguese and Spanish helped her build relationships of trust and develop a deep understanding of situations in many corners of the globe.
Jessica’s Future
She aims to pursue a Ph.D. in Sociology to prepare her for more in-depth research on slavery and how best to combat it. Longer term she plans to teach at the university level, encourage student activism, and continue to expand what is known about slavery.
About the Award:
In 2008, two Fellowships will be awarded to young adults (21 – 30) who have demonstrated consistent determination, creativity and results in the anti-slavery movement, and who are committed to developing their career to help rid the world of slavery. The awardees may have shown their commitment against slavery in a variety of ways. For example, raising awareness in communities, advocating for improved policies, helping set up programs with people in slavery or former slaves, or making films about slavery.
Free the Slaves will nurture awardees as future anti-slavery leaders, build their capacity, and through their leadership, disseminate the vision and the skills required for effective anti-slavery work. Fellows will be undertaking substantive work while at Free the Slaves, including direct participation in our research, work with grassroots Partners, slave-free trade initiatives and communications efforts. In addition, they will have the opportunity to learn practical non-profit management skills through the Nonprofit Management Executive Certification program at Georgetown University’s Center for Public and Non-profit Leadership.
It is our vision that further in their careers Fellows will hold decision-making positions in the most significant anti-slavery entities in the world and maintain a strong alumni network, based on their common high-quality training, transformational experiences and deep roots within the historical anti-slavery tradition that they inherited through the Fellowship program.
The recipient will receive:
• A one-year fellowship to work with Free the Slaves, with a salary of $35,000 plus benefits.
• A professional development package including accredited academic and non-profit management courses at The Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership at Georgetown University. See below for more details.
• The opportunity to travel overseas to learn about other anti-slavery efforts. More>>
The Freedom Awards are underwritten by the John Templeton Foundation.
 "The Freedom Awards combine the best of two world-changing forces that are central to the Sir John Templeton’s positive vision for the future: the power of noble purpose to inspire lives of great significance, and the central importance of enhancing and expanding individual freedom. In addition, the awards honor the memory of Sir John’s daughter Anne Templeton Zimmerman, who herself was a dedicated and courageous advocate for ending slavery and promoting religious freedom.”
-Kimon Sargeant, Ph.D., VP of Human Sciences, John Templeton Foundation
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