A new organization, the Sexual Health Awareness organization (SHA), has started on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s campus.
This organization was started by graduate assistant, Kimberly Bosman. The lack of teaching about sexual health and sex in general was the main influence. This led her to coming up with the idea of creating the SHA. The big goal of the SHA is to have students learn and understand sexual health topics.
“I am currently a graduate student in communications, and I didn’t want to write a thesis,” Bosman said. “I wanted to see something happen, especially along the lines of sexual health because I found that sex education for high school students and sometimes middle school students isn’t as thorough and comprehensive.”
Bosman continued, sharing that she wanted to address this issue by starting the organization.
“So, I wanted to pretty much start an organization where we could give that comprehensive sex education. Almost with the importance of sexual health and just allow students to come and learn,” Bosman said.
The first meeting mainly consisted of Bosman asking students what they would like to learn about, and topics that interest them the most.
“I’m asking students who show up what they’re interested in learning because I can throw all the information I want but it might not be in their interest. I want to prioritize them,” Bosman said.
The main goal of this organization is to educate college students on sexual health and to create a safe environment in which people want to learn about this topic. They also hope to provide resources outside of the ones located on the UL Lafayette campus.
“When it comes to learning this information it’s still a bit of a taboo topic, right? Sexual health, but we need to make sure that this organization does it,” Bosman said. “Sexual health is more than just sexual intercourse, it’s still like understanding your own biology and what can happen, what you should worry about and not worry about.”
Bosman continued, “We hope to provide resources as well as local resources. There are some at UL, some of them might be housed here but some people might be a little further away during just the weekends. So if something happens that they know in the Lafayette area, where they can go, for example, for pregnancy counseling, or just like if they find some kind of worry in their menstrual cycle. We want to give those resources and information as well.”
The first meeting was held on Feb. 28, in Burke-Hawthorne hall, room 115. They will be trying to hold a meeting every first and third Tuesday of the month, and this will be updated on their social media. They can be found on Instagram, Facebook, Pathways and on their personal website. Everyone and anyone is welcome and encouraged to go and participate.