By age 13, I had witnessed several annual naked bike rides and attended the Seattle Children’s Hospital puberty class where teenage girls shouted genitalia vernacular while sitting next to their mothers. Do not be misled; this is by no means a classic “Seattleite that is super comfortable with talking about everything and therefore we should be too” situation. In fact, it is quite the opposite. At the moment, I was horrified.
Fast forward to my first few months at Santa Clara. I slowly began to realize my upbringing looked very different than that of my classmates. Most of them had been in Catholic schools all their lives (duh, we go to a Catholic university) but to my alarm, most had also never experienced sexual health education. No mandatory health class session in middle school where they separate the boys and girls (or if you were really lucky, you got to watch pictorial explanations about how menstruation occurs right next to your counterparts). No sit-down with your parents who burst your bubble and uncomfortably inform you the stork is not real. I further investigated and realized this void of silence led to most of my peers not understanding basic and important rules for safe sex. It was during this time that I came to appreciate the knowledge I had gained from my circa 2009 most “embarrassing” moments.
After looking into the sexual health services provided by Santa Clara’s health center, Cowell, I was mortified. First, because fact Cowell does provide STI testing, just no one knows about it due to the taboo in discussing sex, and secondly, that the distribution of condoms and oral birth control (for the sake of preventing preganancies) is prohibited. Once learning about my colleagues lack of exposure to sexual education plus the structural reinforcements to keep students from learning how to take care of their bodies I decided to act.
At the first establishment of SafeSexSCU, a group of three other women and myself led open forums, in which students could as whatever questions they had regarding safe sex. But college students, particularly Santa Clara students that are busy saving the world, have little time on their hands to add another part of their day. One might be able to predict that the open forums were a bust. So we went back to the drawing board and decided that our efforts needed to meet the students where they were at. And where are they always? On their phones. Social media. Very groundbreaking stuff.
All jokes aside, our social media campaign is what we owe our growth in popularity and image. Once we had our footing and were recognizable to both students and faculty, we grew our social media and expanded to on the ground efforts. These include our quarterly condom passout, joining national organization Students Coalition for Reproductive Justice, hosting educational forums in dorms and fraternity chapter meetings, and working with community partners to bring condom dispensers to popular student spaces outside of school campus. I am humbled by the efforts of everyone that has and continues to contribute to SafeSexSCU, and cannot wait to see what the future holds for our organization!
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