Campuses all over the US need to raise awareness around their campus about sexual assault and have a self-defense course. Most students here at Pitt State do not know much about what the school provides or the assaults on campus. When I first started here at Pitt two years ago, I knew nothing about our Students for violence prevention (SVP), the crisis hotline, nor did I hear from the school when assaults happened. I only learned of one assault my freshman year from my roommate, but I highly doubt there was only one. Not many professors ensured that the students knew about everything the school provided, which left me shocked. When I started to take gender and women's rights courses, the teachers would speak a little more about what the school had.

 Our professors need to take five minutes out of the beginning of class to give the students an update on campus news. Most students do not like to read anymore, so no one reaches for the Collegio. I have talked to multiple students that say that they do not even read the headlines of their emails. Many students also do not walk through the campus anymore because their classes are in one building or only have one in-person class. I do not know a concrete way to raise awareness, but if our professors take a little time to talk about the campus news, events, social media, or resources, more kids would know about them. Even if no student participates in giving information or sitting on their phones, I can say that they are still listening to you. The more our students hear about it, the more involved they will want to be. Most kids are also having a hard time with anxiety right now, so if they hear about something they are interested in, they have a better chance of succeeding. 

 I have decided to do a couple of projects on sexual assault at Pitt state. In my sophomore year, I did not hear about a single assault from my peers or the school. I found out about the resources Pitt State provided from our Gorilla Gateway freshmen course. I learned more about SVP, the hotline, the number of assaults, and who used the hotline by doing a project for a class my sophomore year.  For the second project, I created a twenty-four-question survey about how safe the students felt, if they knew about the school’s resources and if they felt like the school was doing enough for the students. 

 I have always considered myself a feminist who supports all women. I would be viewed as an outspoken person; I will let you know if I respectfully disagree with your opinion. My sophomore year project was about what my group thought would help improve Pitt State. My group chose a self-defense class. During my first project, I got to interview the director of the Crisis hotline about how many calls they receive, how many assaults happen a year, and how many students use the therapists provided by the school. I would like there to be a self-defense class as an option, just like lifetime fitness classes. Many students would instead learn how to work out from a YouTube video because they can work out on their own time and not be around people. I would consider a self-defense class just as or more important than students learning how to work out properly. Having a self-defense class would help every student on campus learn how to protect themselves and possibly save them from becoming survivors of assault.