USA Today College highlights Elon initiative

The article focused on the work of SPARKS Peer Educators to help teach students about healthy relationships and decision-making.  

A recent article in USA Today College included an overview of the efforts Elon University makes to educate its students about health and wellbeing. 

A screenshot of the recent USA Today College article
The article by reporter Jeanine Santucci titled “A new tactic to teach freshmen about sexual assault: theater” provided insight into the work that Elon’s SPARKS Peer Educators do to help their fellow students about healthy relationshps and decision-making. 

Santucci talked with Elizabeth Albritton ’19, a peer educator with SPARKS, which stands for Students Promoting Awareness, Responsibility, Knowledge and Success. SPARKS performs skits for all students who are new to Elon to help them learn about violence in relationships, how to be an active bystander and the key components of consent, Santucci wrote in her article. 

“A lot of the stuff that we do in SPARKS is the building blocks in starting conversations in the dialogue,” Albritton says. “Education and awareness starts at the first exposure that they have to it. Some students come on campus and they have no exposure to (the statistic) that one in four women are going to be sexually assaulted during college.”

Albritton told the reporter that continued dialogue is a primary goal for the variety of presentations and events that SPARKS educators are involved in. “We really just try to eliminate any barriers and just make sure that we have a collaborative effort on campus for education and knowledge and combating gender violence,” she said.

Read the entire article in USA Today College here