Editor’s note: This the final installment of a four-part series taking a look at sexual aggression.

Three CMU students will spend the summer traveling from the beaches of Miami to the cobblestone streets of Boston.

A vacation along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard usually would not be so unusual an event, except the trio will be making their trip on foot.

Beginning May 6, Kathryn Kreps, Rebecca Mercado Thornton and Josh Phillips, members of the student organization East Coast Walkers, will embark on a journey spanning three months and 1,500 miles to raise awareness about sexual aggression.

Kreps, a LaSalle senior, said the group plans to walk about 20 miles a day and have a lot of face-to-face interaction along the way.

“Hopefully people will see three students with matching T-shirts and backpacks and have some questions,” she said.

Thornton, a Romulus senior, said the trio might stop at church services along the route, a great setting for people to ask questions.

Thornton said the most important aspect of their trip is that it brings exposure to the issue.

“It can be difficult to get people to open up about something so personal,” she said. “But I can’t stress enough how important it is for people to engage in dialogue about a topic that affects so many people.”

Phillips, an Illinois graduate student, said sexual aggression affects one in four women.

“I know way more than four women (who have been sexually assaulted),” he said, “so it’s a very personal issue.”

All three of the East Coast Walkers are members of Sexual Aggression Peer Advocates, a student organization that aids sexual aggression survivors and their families and friends in dealing with sexual violence issues.

Phillips said the trio was inspired by a group of SAPA members who, in 2001, walked from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness for sexual aggression.

The East Coast Walkers route is shorter, but no less daunting, he said.

The 95-day trek poses some practical problems for the walkers.

Thornton said the trip would cost about $8,000. The group has sought funding from the campus and local communities and has received a lot of support.

Phillips said people interested in supporting their cause could join a Facebook group named “East Coast Walkers.”

Another concern is lodging, he said.

“We’re going to bank a lot on the hospitality of others,” he said. “We’ll be knocking on some doors and asking if it’s OK that we camp out in their front yards.”

Phillips said the sheer magnitude of walking poses some physical hurdles.

Though all three are in good athletic shape and have been walking consistently for a few weeks, he said he doesn’t think anything will prepare them for the undertaking ahead of them.

For Kreps, the cause is motivation enough to press on in the face of numerous physical and schematic obstacles.

“I can’t not do this,” she said, “I can’t live in a society where sexual aggression takes place and not try and make a difference.”

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