Stories

Peer Educators

For the last day of my Peer Education class, we went to the Wiliam F. Ryan Community Health Center for their teen clinic to do some peer education.  It was nice to see my students outside of the classroom and I think they were more relaxed, getting to do something that was not at 8am, when our class is held.  We ordered some pizza beforehand and discussed possible topics and what we would be doing--handing out pamphlets and letting patients ask questions if they had any.  The students seemed a bit hesitent, but interested in educate people. 

When we arrived at the clinic, there were not many people in the waiting room.  This made it challenging to approach people, but I encouraged the students to get over their fears and not worry about being turned down.  This is a difficult task when you are in high school, or really any time.  It did not help that the first person I approached as an example was not very responsive.  But by the end, all of the students had gone up to someone and handed them a pamphlet and asked if they had any questions.  It was very rewarding to see them go from being so scared of going up to a random stranger to realizing that it was not that big of a deal and people were more friendly than they expected.  They were visibly more confident after interacting with the waiting patients, and I was happy to be a part of overcoming their fears.