News Coverage

When you think of customizable apps for the college crowd, the first thing that comes to mind is rarely public safety.
But that’s exactly the goal of Ping4 this fall. Using innovative technologies such as geo-fencing — which allows users to target a specific area — Ping4 enables students to notify others of a dangerous situation. If you witness a mugging, for example, Ping4 lets you tell all other users who are within the area. You can provide details on what you...

Dallas Jessup came home from high school one day and watched the surveillance footage of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia's abduction -- never suspecting the short video would change the course of her life.
In the footage, Carlie is approached by a man as she walks home from a friend's house.
"She went away with him willingly," Jessup said. "And they found her body four days later."
Watching the video ignited a passion in Jessup, then 14 years old. She's 20 now, and the same passion...

For most young women, college is typically their first experience living away from home. They’re excited, naive, and believe themselves world-wise. Unfortunately, regardless of geography or socio-economic circumstances, 1 in 3 will be victims of dating abuse, sexual assault, date rape drugs, hate crimes, or just random violence. (Dept. of Justice stats)
Dallas Jessup of Vancouver, a Vanderbilt University junior, created a way to reduce those numbers. She put together an...

"FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!!" someone yells. Students at the school bus stop look over, but instead of a fire they see a large man grabbing a petite teenage girl by her arms. Yelling, she kicks his groin jabs her thumb into his eye and pulls his ear. He backs off in pain, enabling her to escape.
The girl is 14-year-old Dallas Jessup, starring in her own film, Just Yell Fire. The film is aimed at helping 11- to 19-year-old girls avoid abduction and sexual predation with fight-back skills and...

Dallas Jessup of Vancouver garnered national attention at age 14 for producing a self-defense video — "Just Yell Fire" — that taught teen girls how to protect themselves from sexual predators.
Now a 20-year-old Vanderbilt University student, Jessup has produced a sequel — "Just Yell Fire Campus Life" — tailored for her peers and offering strategies for defending against date rape, date drugs, abusive relationships and sexual assault on and off campus.
"Right...

Hollywood has always loved its plucky movie heroines, but this year the girls – and yes, these are girls, not yet women – are younger, braver and less focused on men. This, say some media watchers, is the good news in the rash of “kick butt” teen protagonists on screen in films such as “Brave,” “Snow White and The Huntsman,” and “The Hunger Games.” All three movies have drawn large audiences to cheer on strong central ...

Model and author to-be Anjhula Mya Singh Bais says Delhi fit the bill perfectly, when the city with the highest number of registered cases of violence against young women was to be chosen.
In India to shoot for "Just Yell Fire Campus Life", a film being shot in different countries around the world to spread awareness about the dangers faced by girls in college, Anjhula delivered her dialogues with perfect ease, seemingly unperturbed by the crowd of men around her that kept growing....

Anjhula Mya Singh Bais, a New York based Indian model, will do a cameo in the film Just Yell Fire Campus Life, for which she shot at India Gate in Delhi yesterday.
Just Yell Fire, a global nonprofit founded by US teen Dallas Jessup, is focussed on preventing violence against girls and young women by empowering them to know their rights and providing them with skills to fight it. Other celebrities joining Anjhula in the film include Shay Mitchell of Pretty Little Liars, Tinsel Korey of...

Boys and girls are changing the world. If you stop and look, it’s happening all around us. Although we may not hear these stories on a regular basis, it is important to slow down and learn from what boys and girls are doing to make a difference in their communities. After all, these examples inspire other boys and girls to tap into their own passions. Who knows, they just might inspire you too. Here are a few that have stood out for me…
1. Ryan’s Well – The...