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COMMUNITY NEWS
BSC President Gen. Charles C. Krulak joined a campaign this
year to encourage the United States to do more to fight human
trafficking, including what he calls “modern-day slavery” in
American businesses.
He is working closely with international nonprofit Human
Rights First on efforts to provide policy makers and law
enforcement with common-sense solutions to the problem.
For Krulak, it’s an issue close to his heart. He also works with
“She’s Somebody’s Daughter,” a nonprofit in Hummelstown,
Pa., to help raise awareness of the plague of sexual exploitation
and sexual slavery. In addition, he writes about the problem of
human trafficking through his blog on the Huffington Post.
“Human trafficking happens in every nation in the world,
including right here in the U.S.,” Krulak wrote in an op-ed
published by Fox News. “Victims are trafficked for both sex
and labor, forced to work in virtually every sector of the U.S.
economy—from farming and manufacturing to meat and
poultry processing, domestic service, and the hospitality sector.”
Worldwide, prosecutions have lagged behind the rapidly-
growing rate of trafficking, which is estimated to create global
profits of roughly $150 billion per year—second only to
narcotics. A recent Trafficking in Persons Report issued by
the State Department found that the Department of Justice
prosecuted only 161 human trafficking cases in 2013, putting
174 traffickers behind bars.
“We must work together to ensure that the U.S. is a place
where the rule of law is strong and traffickers from all parts of
the trafficking exploitation network are brought to justice, taking
away their profit motive so that we can shut down the business
of trafficking once and for all,” Krulak wrote. “It is well past
time for all those who find modern-day slavery intolerable to
force exploiters to close up shop.”
BSC’s president makes ending human trafficking a top priority
Recent graduate launches hit sports application
Little did Dewar Gaines ’14 know that a BSC football injury would lead to a new career creating a
smartphone application designed to prevent baseball pitchers from needing surgery.
Gaines, a business major, is CEO of the startup technology firm Abracadabra Health; within
months of graduation, his company’s first product, “Throw Like a Pro,” had been endorsed by
renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews and received national media attention, including
mentions on ESPN.
The iPhone app grew out of a brainstorm Gaines had while rehabbing from ankle surgery in early
2013. While he worked on his physical therapy, he thought it might be helpful if, instead of using a
stack of papers outlining his exercises, he could keep track of them on his phone. Almost exactly a
year later—with help from Banks Nelson ’12, who designed the app—“Throw Like a Pro” was born.
The app, which launched this spring, gives players from Little League through high school warm-
ups and other exercises to prevent them from injuring themselves; Gaines’ goal is to stem the rising
tide of elbow surgery (also known as Tommy John) common in young pitchers. For $9.99, users
get access to advice from Andrews, who has done surgery on some of the top professional baseball,
football, and basketball players, and physical therapist Dr. Kevin Wilk, who helps those patients get
back up to speed. A portion of the proceeds go to the American Sports Medicine Institute, Andrews’
nonprofit research foundation based in Birmingham.
“For the first time kids and parents everywhere will have access to the information and routines
that we hope will put an end to this epidemic,” Andrews said in a news release.
Gaines said preventing pitching overuse is just the first step; down the road, Abracadabra hopes to launch more apps that can
be used for other sports, physical therapy, and additional health tracking. And the new tech star credits his BSC education with
handing him the tools to dream big. In fact, he’s so convinced he’s hired BSC undergraduates as interns and hopes some of them
will return to work for the company full-time after they graduate.
“Birmingham-Southern is the best thing that ever happened to me as far as business goes,” said Gaines, who started his college
career at the University of Southern Mississippi, then took time out to work before returning to the classroom. “The liberal arts
education fostered a way to think out of the box. It didn’t necessarily prepare me for one career or another—I know I can do
anything right now.”