April: Peer Health Recruitment Season

Starting April 1, Penn's Office of Health Education (a division of the Student Health Service) will be recruiting undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to be trained as peer health educators and peer health advocates. Applicants who are accepted into the program in April will be trained in late September and early October to conduct peer health activities in the 1996-97 academic year. Our office encourages faculty and staff to identify and refer health-interested students to this valuable service-based program.

Peer health groups to which students may apply are:

DART (Drug & Alcohol Resource Team)

FLASH (Facilitating Learning About Sexual Health)

GUIDE (Guidance for Understanding Image, Dieting, & Eating)

STAAR (Students Together Against Acquaintance Rape)

SHAB (Student Health Advisory Board)

Each group consists of 15-25 student members who are trained in the issues specific to the group's mission. SHAB members do not conduct educational workshops, unlike the other groups. Rather, SHAB serves as a consumer-advocacy group which shapes Student Health Service policies and procedures.

Students may apply to one group only; dual membership is discouraged.

Applicants who are accepted make the following commitment:

One full weekend of training in late September/early October

One full weekend of peer health cross-training in February 1997

One meeting per week during the fall and spring semesters (2 hours per week)

Service conducting workshops or other educational activities (2 additional hours per week)

The program is voluntary and does not provide pay or academic credit. The program is competitive--not all applicants get accepted.

Applicants do not need previous expertise in the issue of the group to which they apply, but they must demonstrate a willingness to learn health information and facilitation/advocacy skills. Previous facilitation, advocacy, or activism experience is a plus.

Applications may be picked-up after April 1 in the Office of Health Education, 310 Houston Hall.

Deadline for submitting applications is Friday, April 12 at 5 p.m. Applicants must attend a 30-minute interview during the week of April 15. Decisions about applicants will be made no later than Wednesday, April 24.

If you have questions about the peer health application process, please contact the Office of Health Education, 310 Houston Hall, at 573- 3525 or by e-mail: she@pobox.upenn.edu

--Kurt Conklin, Health Educator, Student Health Service


Almanac

March 19, 1996
Volume 42 Number 24


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