Traumatized by your 50-year-old health teacher showing you how to put a condom on a banana? A group of Northwestern students is making sex ed and other health class-related horror stories a thing of the past.
Peer Health Exchange offers a comprehensive health curriculum to schools unable to afford one. It began its first chapters in Chicago this year, working in high schools without the resources to provide adequate health education. PHE has had chapters in Boston and New York City for three years, usually in areas where half or more of the school lives below the poverty line.
Hoping to broaden their scope, PHE recruited college students from NU and the University of Chicago to teach approximately 650 high school freshmen about substance abuse, nutrition, sexual health and other aspects of healthy decision making. 74% of the high school students thought being taught by college students was helpful, according to PHE.
Beginning winter quarter, NU students will go to three schools, teaching 12 workshops to half the students. (University of Chicago students will take the other half.) Thirty NU participants were selected out of 100 applicants to be trained in weekly meetings throughout fall quarter.
What sets PHE apart from other health education programs is that “PHE physically goes to the students, while with other programs, individuals must go to them,” says Sarah Mihalov, co-coordinator of the NU chapter. Surveys in Boston and New York show that high school students’ health knowledge increased by 20% after the program.
These college students hope to prove that crack is whack and to provide the skills and health knowledge that some kids would never have otherwise.