Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Great times at Trinity and Castleton

We, the RV Team, have had a burst of good luck. Our luck has come in the form of friendly faces throughout the Northeast. Recently we visited Trinity College and Castleton State University. Each gig brought new friends and positive reactions.

First, Trinity. Located in Hartford, Connecticut, Trinity is a stunning campus. If you shut your eyes and imagine the classic college campus, you'll see Trinity College. All the buildings are beautiful stone structures complete with archways and ornate windows. I, or course, enjoyed the campus because coffee was never hard to find. We parked right outside the student center, so we got to see many students and, more importantly, many students got to see our RV. We presented four times at Trinity to over 300 students, many athletes and greek pledges. After our final presentation, numerous men thanked us, calling the men's program one of the best presentations they'd seen on the subject of sexual violence. As you can imagine, we were thrilled by the response.

At Trinity, we worked closely with Laura Lockwood, Director of the Women and Gender Resource Action Center. Not only did she treat us kindly and generously, but she also offered a lot of interesting conversation. She is doing a huge amount of good work at Trinity and we were honored to be a part of her efforts. We also got to meet Lauren, her assistant, who was kind enough to give us a short tour of Hartford. We welcome any chance to travel in a vehicle under 37 feet!

After Trinity, we headed to Castleton State in Vermont for our first chapter training. each of us was quite nervous about this new endeavor. Luckily, the guys we worked with were exceptional. Not only did we really feel that they had a strong beginning, but we had a lot of fun with them. The two day training was intense and time consuming, but I'm positive we all left feeling sure of the impact those guys would have on their campus community. It was great for us to get connected to the incredible power of One in Four chapters. Here, we met Jackie as student coordinator for the Change Initiative, a program that hopes to bring more education to Castleton State concerning issues of sexuality and sexual health. She was kind enough to take us to see the beauty of Vermont. We got to watch the sunset over the colorful foliage decorating the mountains of Vermont. Our contact, Linda was a pleasure to work wit as she had tons of great input and, again, treated us quite well!

Following these two gigs, we hit the road and stopped off at the Ben and Jerry's factory, a Vermont must. After that, we traveled to Salem, Mass to check out the witch trial history. Currently, we are making our way to Virginia for a presentation at Radford.

The past days have been rich, full of good work and friendly people.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Connecticut and Carolina

After finishing our mad dash around Philadelphia (Villanova, St. Joeseph's, and Messiah), we headed back to our home base at Connecticut College to spend some time with Adam and office work. Working in a place with a foundation was a nice change for us.

In Connectiicut, we tackled numerous projects from working on the newsletter to cold-calling schools. We learned that Frank has a gift for cold-calling, and so we let him take on that project. Also, we got a chance to present to the Peer Educators at Conn College in an effort to hype up the students about starting a One in Four Chapter. Of course, they were a great audience and seemed really interested in potentially starting a chapter, which is always exciting. A Conn College chapter would surely be a really strong group!

New London is fairly spread out, so we don't often venture out. However, Frank and I decided to take a walk to Chili's one night because he had a hankering for steak. After about forty-five minutes on the dark roads on Connecticut, we arrived at Chili's. Well, having been poor judges of distance and personal energy, wee called Adam for a ride home after our meal. Luckily, Adam was more than happy to pick us up.

After Conn College, we headed down to do a little maintenance on the RV in Virginia. We then drove down to Greenville, N.C. for our presentation at East Carolina. I think we'll all agree, this was an interesting presentation. First, we helped Sue with Victim Services distribute flyers about our presentation and the Take Back the Night march preceding our presentation. There was a twist- she asked us to pass out flyers wearing high heels. Yeah. One component of the Take Back the Night march was "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes" for guys to make a statement by marching in heels. So, Sue wanted us to help promote that. But, the heel-wearing didn't stop there- Chad an Frank actually did march during Take Back the Night in heels! Carter and I led the parade in our RV. Our presentation went very well and we left thankful for all the momentum being created on the ECU campus to stop sexual assault.

Now, we are changing some tires and driving back up to New England for our next presentation at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

York

After speaking at York University, One in Four became in international speaking group! We were all ecstatic to take our presentation to Toronto, Canada.

To get to York, we left the RV in a New Jersey parking lot and flew to Toronto. When we arrived in Toronto, we were picked up by a car service and carried through the city to the York campus, a campus that serves over 32,000 students. The drive through Toronto gave us a good notion of the size of the city...huge.

Once we got to York, we met our contact, Janis. She showed us to where we would be spending our nights at York- four graduate apartments complete with kitchen, porch, bed and bathroom. Let me emphasize- we each had our own apartment. You can imagine the level of excitement. I think each of us shouted moments after unlocking our apartment door. We had only been at York for about twenty minutes and already we felt right at home.

Janis took us out to lunch and explained the campus culture and some differences between college in the States and Canada. Our first presentation would be the following day, giving us a a fair amount of time to enjoy Toronto. We rode the train into the heart of the city and meandered through the downtown. We got to take a look at the University of Toronto, a very beautiful campus. After that, we moved onto the CN Tower. We rode to the top and looked out over the city at sunset. We felt like a couple of world travelers enjoying an international tourist destination.

The next day we gave four presentations. We were lucky to have much support from the faculty as each presentation had a counselor and student leaders. On the second day, we did five presentations. One of the presentation was open, giving faculty the chance to better understand our organization. We were met with a great deal of enthusiasm. Both the faculty and the students showed an interest in starting a chapter at York.

We had a lot of fun in Toronto. By the end of our time, we felt very close to our contact, Janis. She treated us incredibly well and it felt wonderful to have someone so excited to work with us to better the campus environment. We also met wonderful student from SASSLE, York's sexual assault help line. They are each doing important work at York and we are thankful for their sacrifice of time and energy to better their campus.

So, we'd all count York a huge success. After speaking with over nine hundred students in just two days, we were exhausted but satisfied. We enjoyed our time, our presentations, all the hot coffee, good food, personal bathrooms, and great people. But even though we had to say goodbye to all that, it felt nice to be back home (RV in various Wal-Mart parking lot).

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Dickenson

I've got to admit, we were all pretty nervous before our first presentation. Up until this point we had only presented to Adam and once to Carter's family. So, looking out over the Dickenson auditorium packed with over three hundred guys was a little daunting. Quickly though, those nerves turned into energy and we nailed our first presentation. Each of us having struggled with different presenting issues, felt confident in our ability to present to an actual audience. Presenting this first Men's Program provided a great deal of excitement for the real work of the tour.

Also, we were lucky too have been met with such friendly contacts for our first presentation. We got the chance to eat dinner with one of our contacts Tim and a couple of student athletes. This gave us a great chance to understand the Dickenson culture before presenting.

During the presentation, we were able to finally look out onto a sea of faces and understand the power of our program. To see students processing information and really thinking about some of the issues we raise is incredibly rewarding. We each feel so lucky to have had such a positive first presentation.

Dickenson is located in Carlisle, PA. Carlisle is a very sweet city, full of bookstores, coffee shops, and cafes throughout the downtown area. I think we were each glad to be located at a school that afforded us the chance to leave the RV and meander through a city. Williamsburg was not quite so pedestrian friendly.

Of course, living in the RV was an adjustment. Parking at Dickenson really enforced the reality of our lives for the next year. The reality of living in an RV and parking in back lots and searching for restrooms was then combined with the truth of our first presentation- we are living in an RV to do amazing work.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Meet the Guys


Chad Merica

So this is the “real world”. I suppose I should introduce myself to the “real world” to start things off. I’m Chad Merica, born and raised in Shenandoah, Virginia (It’s near Luray Caverns; I actually spent 7 summers of my life working there.) The last four years of my life have been spent at The University of Virginia working with our local One In Four chapter and serving as a student manager for our football team. Needless to say, the combination of those two activities left very little time for anything else; I wouldn’t have changed a thing though. Why am I here in Williamsburg living in a Super 8 Hotel and an RV with three other men? The adventure an opportunity it provides. The opportunity to work to prevent rape, change our culture, and simply make things better, coupled with a trip crossing the country; Yea, sounds awesome to me.

While the time in Williamsburg has been incredibly valuable as we prepare to travel, it has also been difficult at times. I think we are all ready to hit the road and present to a few more people than just Adam, his two- liter bottle of Pepsi, and his alternate personalities during the question and answer portion of a program. It’s also been exciting to be thrust into a situation with three new roommates, two of whom I’d only spoken to on the phone and through email before arriving. I honestly believe things will work well though as our personalities mesh in a positive way, oh, and we all plan to be the best presenting RV team yet (Sorry teams 1-4, the sooner you accept that fact, the easier it will be.). Overall, it appears as if the next 9 and a ½ months will be some of the of the most exciting, interesting, and enriching of my life.

Frank Higginbotham

Hello bloggers! First off I’m gonna go ahead and tell you, I’m not a blogger, I never really knew was it was until the rest of the guys told me, essentially I took away that it was basically an online journal for all to read. So…my name is Frank, I’m from Charlotte, NC and went to UNCW about 200 miles east of home. I graduated with a degree in exercise science and am completely psyched about the chance to be a national One in Four peer educator. I got into One in Four on my campus. We just started a chapter my senior year and I really liked the message that it sent. I had also seen tour 3 and tour 4 at UNCW, so the group wasn’t unfamiliar to me. When tour 4 came back to UNCW, I already knew Jor-El (he was my RA my freshman year) and he gave me info about the National Tour. I got excited about it and now here I am. I’m adjusting pretty well, and I like all the guys. I know it will be a life rewarding experience that I can’t wait for!

Rob Powell

I'm Rob Powell from the grand town of Columbus, Georgia (birthplace of Coca-Cola and home to Carson McCullers). I graduated from Berry College in Rome, Georgia with a degree in Communication. While at Berry, I enjoyed many activities including swinging from trees as an adventure course facilitator, serving soup and salad as a waiter at a Japanese Steakhouse, planning events for the WinShape College Program, and preparing piping-hot coffee beverages as a Starbuck's barista. I also served for two and a half years as a victim advocate and community educator for the Sexual Assault Center of Northwest Georgia. It was here that I developed an intense desire to lend his voice to the struggle against sexual violence. The RV Tour thrills me both for the incredible adventure and the opportunity to reach so many for a cause so important.

Carter Shotwell

I'm Carter Shotwell, and I grew up in Richmond, Virginia. I went to the College of William and Mary and graduated with a degree in neuroscience. While I was there I was a four-year member of One in Four where I served as Training Coordinator and as President. I also coached our women's Club Softball Team and was a member of VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood. When I'm not out fighting the lions of injustice, you can usually find me at home, cooking something delicious and then playing Spades well into the night.

Life on the Road

Hey everyone!

We, the 2008-2009 National Peer Educators, have been on the road for a couple weeks now. I bet you can imagine how our lives have totally changed!

For one, we live on an RV. This has been interesting. We've had to adjust to the sound of all our belongings shifting loudly as we drive or seeing each other at almost every moment in the day. While RV living is quite different than living someplace bolted down, it definitely has major perks. For one, we get to see the country from the comfort of a couch. We've driven past New York City, Washington D.C., through the Adirondacks, and along the coast of Maine.

Each of us is already able to tell that this adventure will have a great, positive impact on us and our audiences.

Since we've been on the road for a while, I want to make sure we get you caught up on the adventure up until this point- so the following posts will detail some of our experiences thus far!