Turnstile

by Kelli Swartzel

One in four women are raped. One in eight men are sexually assaulted. Ninety percent of all sexual assaults involve high risk drinking. One out of five people have genital herpes.

Are you shocked? Are you thinking to yourself: Is this possible?

The first time I heard these statistics, my initial thought was one of shock and fear. I was afraid because all of these statistics are gathered from college campuses. College, the place that I was going to be spending my next four years. These are serious issues that I was going to encounter on a daily basis as a woman, a student and as someone who wanted to live my life to the fullest.

Nowhere in high school did they sit me down and say, “Hey, you or someone you know will be raped, infected, assaulted, and most likely these things will involve alcohol and probably change your life as you know it.” All they told me was that college was the place that I was supposed to be.

In my mind, college was the land of new experience, a place where I was going to find myself and be led down the path toward the rest of my life. Who knew that a huge roadblock would be set in my path if I made the wrong decisions? Talk about pressure.

I can’t help thinking to this day that all I ever would have needed was someone to tell me that I wasn’t alone. Someone to say, “These things do exist; don’t be scared. Just be prepared and I’m going to show you how to be.”

The bad news is that these statistics probably are going to get worse before they get better. The good news is that there is a way to educate yourself and others. POWER, Promoting Ohio University Wellness Education and Responsibility, is an organization of peer educators that help people who were in my situation. We present programs that educate students on what to do to prevent these things from happening. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to be a part of this group, because I know I am out there helping people make healthy choices.

I am the person who I wanted to talk to me my first year on campus. I am taking control of my destiny by educating myself and everyone else who is out there. Wouldn’t you like to be a part of it all? See what a difference you can make in someone else’s life, a difference that might change someone’s life for the better.

-POWER will have an open house from 2 to 4 p.m., Jan. 25 in room1804 in Baker Center.