Jocelyn is a Campus Organizer.

My name is Jocelyn and I am a 19 year old college sophomore.  I recently joined PHIVE-O, which is an organization of peer educators that give presentations to young adults about HIV/AIDS and the prevention of HIV/AIDS.  I’m from a pretty small Midwestern town and attended a small “country” high school right outside of town.  While being what I believe to be a very good high school, I’ve looked back and noticed that my sex education course consisted of merely naming off the most well-known sexually transmitted diseases and that abstinence is the best form of prevention.  Of course I had heard enough about condoms from outside sources to guess how they worked and felt I knew everything there was to know until I saw a PHIVE-O presentation in college.  All of us were embarrassed and felt that it wasn’t necessary because most of us already had some sort of sex ed, but half way through the presentation, the know-it-all look on everyone’s faces changed to a look of ‘why haven’t I ever heard that?’  I was unsettled by the fact that I knew so little about HIV since we’ve all heard so much about it. 

Later that year, in another class, we were assigned a project to research local political candidates and form a list of pros and cons.  I discovered that one of the candidates started a petition against sending condoms to Africa, in favor of spending that money on teachings of abstinence, because it did not agree with his religion.  I was completely shocked that someone would actually use their time and energy to hinder any kind of help to a place in need.  One person’s point of view, no matter the amount of power they have, should not be able to conveniently cut out any information or options they don’t agree with if it can potentially help another person in need.  All this does is promote ignorance.

It was with this state of mind that I eagerly joined PHIVE-O in hopes of providing awareness to as many young people as we can reach.  Just because most people in this area probably don’t directly know someone who is HIV positive, does not mean it doesn’t affect each and every one of us, just as preaching only abstinence doesn’t make adolescents forget that sex exists.  I am so proud to be able to work with youth advocates because HIV is not an issue of the past and not just something that affects people in Africa or homosexuals. The taboo of this virus is still very much alive and still very much underestimated and misreported.

My dream is to use my energy to help spread information to every inch of our world and educate anyone and everyone what HIV is, how they can prevent it and hopefully inspire them to spread their knowledge to others. Although facts about this virus are startling and talking about it is often uncomfortable, the only way we can conquer HIV is by countering the ignorance around it.  I used to get just as red in the face as the next person when talking about sex and I used as many synonyms as possible to replace that ‘word of which we do not speak,’ but look at me now!  I can type the word sex and I even threw the word ‘condom’ around a few times!  We need to speak freely and comfortably about sex and HIV and open ourselves to learn as much as we can.  Only when we are equipped with knowledge and confidence can we come together and defeat this and don’t for a second believe that one small person can’t do that!