AIDS free December

What events have taken place at the agency you have volunteered and how have you assisted this month?

- To end November and welcome Drury students back from Thanksgiving break on a relaxing note the Panthers for Planned Parenthood held a Juno night in Lay Auditorium where we served Sunny D and Twizzlers while handing out condoms, lube, and general information about Planned Parenthood. We also had a copy of their most recent petition for free and prescription free birth control. Then December 1^st was World AIDS Day and Planned Parenthood contacted us telling us that if we were planning an event they would send us 1000 condoms along with post cards for students to sign and fill out that would be sent on their behalf to their government representative stating that safe sex education is a priority and should become one within school districts and that we care that the youth are being educated. They also mentioned that available contraception was a priority in keeping the world AIDS free. We successfully got 50 postcards signed and will be continuing to have those at our events as well as the petition. At this event we made reindeer to hang on a Christmas tree with condoms in their mouths for people to take. Overall the event was very successful.

As we end the semester what have been your best experiences and toughest experiences with your partnership agency?

- I think that one of our best experiences with our agency has been the most recent World AIDS Day campaign where we were able to respond to Crystal’s needs instead of hosting an activity we planned on campus. So far the difficult part of our summit house is that we are not an organization that can simply head over to Planned Parenthood and volunteer several hours and come back. We joined Crystal as Drury members trying to get the stigma with Planned Parenthood settled on Drury’s campus. This means that we have to plan the activities, get the supplies and figure out a way to make it work smoothly. When Crystal was able to get us involved with all of the other Planned Parenthood education groups on different campuses to spread awareness on World AIDS Day it felt extremely rewarding.

How do you see your group project evolving into the Spring Semester now that you have one semester under your belt?

- I believe that next semester now that we have figured out some effective ways to get students attention and have obtained some petitions involving planned parenthood we can working toward creating larger events and possibly creating a student body group so that Planned Parenthood will continue to be supported by the Drury community.

What skills have you gained or improved this semester that came directly out of being part of the Summit Leadership Experience?

- I have gained important time management skills. This semester it has been imperative that I balance my homework with my volunteering. It would be awful if I was given a responsibility and let down my entire summit house. I was also able to step forward and contribute useful ideas as well as watch these plans become realities. It really helped me to see the amount of work it takes to not only be the group planning activities but also putting them on.

As we end the Wellness Program and Stress Free Now Component what have been the highlights (low and high) of this program and what would you suggest for the future if this is continued?

- The Stress Free Now Wellness Program has added a good amount of depth to my knowledge of distressing. Prior to the classes my methods were to pause for a second, and maybe go for a run. I had never explored message, acupuncture, tai chi, or yoga before. Some of the online activities were considerably lengthy to practice five times a week. When it has come down to the week before finals I am going to have a hard time finding thirty minutes to just meditate. While this has made me realize that meditation can be extremely helpful in de-stressing, it has also moderately stressed me out trying to find a full 30 minutes to dedicate to meditation. I responded really well to the yoga exercises as well as acupuncture and am excited about the message. Tai chi did not make a terrible amount of sense to me and was not as rewarding as the other activities because we were given such a short period of time to learn it. However, even if it did continue I think that it wasn’t something I was passionate about or believed I enough to continue doing.

What are you looking forward to over the winter break?

- Over winter break I am looking forward to sitting down without a text book or laptop in my lap. Having zero homework seems impossible as this semester comes to a close and I am looking forward to a couple days of not thinking and making Christmas cookies. I’m also excited to catch up on sleep and do some reading.