Operation250 , DifferenceMakers

Operation250 is an online platform consisting of an educational website, engaging videos and a large social media presence, focused on educating both young adolescents, parents and educators on how to prevent radical extremist recruitment.

Operation250 aims to give students a better understanding about terrorism and online safety.

This team won the Campus-wide DifferenceMaker title, a $6,000 prize, at the 2017 5th Annual DifferenceMaker $50K Idea Challenge. Team members include Tyler Cote (Senior, Political Science and Criminal Justice), Jaime Keenan (Junior, Criminal Justice) Jonas Pierribia (Senior, Criminal Justice), Nicollete SanClemente (Sophomore, International Business) and Danielle Thibodeau (Senior, Criminal Justice and Psychology).

Operation250 is an online platform consisting of an educational website, engaging videos and a large social media presence, focused on educating both young adolescents, parents and educators on how to prevent radical extremist recruitment. The team gets its name from articles that cite “over 250 Americans have gone to various extremist groups in Syria and Iraq to fight”. Operation250 aims to give students a better understanding about terrorism and online safety. Operation250 has already partnered with several organizations to combat violent extremism, including Families Against Terrorism and Extremism (FATE) and Against Violent Extremism (AVE) in order to help create a curriculum to connect students, educators and families with the discussion about terrorism and online safety to stop the next 250 people from being recruited.

Operation 250 website