Work-shopping at SBCC

Kaylie, Caitlin, Vanessa, Me, Brian and Thaddeus - Sigma Chi Eta, SBCC

After months of working with a Reno NV group planning a safety day for their community and doing some online outreach to students at SBCC and UNR, I headed a few hours north to speak at a workshop produced by SBCC's Sigma Eta Chi and sponsored by the President's office and Communications Department.

Knowing that the community was grieving the loss of the much loved Brianna Denison, I hoped for a full house. The school did a great job promoting the workshop as most of the seats were filled on this Tuesday afternoon in the middle of classes and so very close to finals.

I was greeted by two incredible women: Professor Sarah Hock and Sigma Chi Eta's president, Vanessa Gonzalez. Bright eyed and so very welcoming, I knew that if asked to do so, I would make this trip a thousand times over. We put out RAINN posters, call cards, and flyers and syched up the tech stuff. David disappeared into the almost full room as Sigma Chi Eta rolled their presentation and introduced today's speaker. I listened as if it were a stranger until I heard my name. Oh right, that's me (sometimes I forget). To make that quick change to survivor/activist takes a second - you are you, and then you are the you that has a story to tell. It's what I call turning the light on so that other survivors and co-survivors can find me. It's always on, really, but on stage it becomes a spotlight.

The topic was creating a safer campus but in order for people to care about anything I have to say, they have to know why I'm there to begin with. So to begin I go back to 1996. And then the aftermath. Now we can talk about now. Creating a campus isn't tearing up a street or installing more lights in darker places (although that is helpful), it's about caring and protecting your community - yourself and the people around you. College is another family. You love your chosen family - you respect and protect them. It takes courage to speak about a taboo subject - not for me so much as students who want to just be as much as they want to trust their environment. It's a step towards some serious responsibility but in itself it is powerful just how much one word, one action can change your landscape.

I met some amazing people on my short trip to Santa Barbara and took a little piece of their hearts home with me. To Vanessa, Kaylie, Thaddeus and Brian - thank you for your kind hearts. To everyone was there or wasn't able to attend but still wrote to me, you know where you can find me, always. So keep writing - my love and admiration will be with you long after finals are over.

xxoo