I am now several weeks into my internship with Lift Louisiana, and I am so excited about all of the work I am doing. My main project for the semester is launching a new campaign called #MyLouisianaSexEd, which aims to collect stories from students in Louisiana about their experiences, both positive and negative, in sex ed.
So far, I have updated our website to get it ready for launch and began reworking, editing and creating the materials we will need to make the campaign launch successful. While I plan to pilot the campaign at Tulane next month, I am also working to create a network of campus leaders around Louisiana so that the campaign can be successfully launched at college campuses around the state this year. I have started to compile a list of student organizations and their leaders at universities across the state to pinpoint who could be launching these campaigns. Currently, I am working on developing a webinar to present to these statewide campus leaders about what the campaign is and what they will need to do to launch it.
As the date of the campaign’s launch grows nearer and nearer, I am only more excited about the work I am doing with Lift Louisiana. Hopefully, once the campaign launches statewide, we will collect a plethora of student stories to better not only our understanding of the good and bad of sex ed. in Louisiana, but the understanding of our legislators as well. The information we are collecting is key to humanizing the idea of comprehensive sex ed. for our legislators – we need these stories to show them that sex ed. is not simply some abstract form of education for kids. Rather, it is something that will impact their health and well-being throughout their lives. I look forward to launching the campaign in the upcoming month and seeing what we can accomplish!