During my junior year I had to choose between being cross country captain or leading a new peer education club. I chose the later because I believed my campus needed more health education, and I am still proud of my choice. 

PEARLS: peer educators advocating responsible lifesyles

 This group accomplished so much in 2 years! We started by wanting to talk about nutrition and physical activity but quickly found out that the campus needed many other types of health education. We surveyed the student body and found out that they wanted to know about sexual health, safe drinking, abusive relationships, sun safety, and mental health. I gained project management skills, community partner relationships, and leadership skills as president. Our sessions ranged from dorm room educations to cafeteria health fairs to mandatory class-wide education.

I helped the club become recognized by the school by filling out appropriate paperwork and attending necessary student body meetings. Other schools pay their peer educators, so that's the ultimate goal. My favorite part about being in this group was the interest that the other student gave when we talked. I felt that we filled a real need and I want to do this with nutrition as well! This experience helped me learn how to successfully educate to college students, which is a skill I hope to transfer to nutrition education for college students.

This is a video our group made to present to the freshman class about having a "safe night out". We always tried to think of new and engaging way to educate the students.