Sabrina's Final Reflection

When I first started this class, I identified some barriers to adolescents having a healthy sexuality; social norms, cultural and religious, and relationships with parents/caregivers. Now having completed the course, I have come to realize that all these health sexuality barriers can be addressed with the help of workshops teaching skill-building activities.

This class helped me to change my way of thinking about adolescents. The development of a youth's brain and other biological factors can affect how one learns and how they play a role in what they want to retain. The facilitating skills that the professors taught us on how to engage with adolescents really opened my eyes to how they learn and are exposed to information. Using Socio-drama techniques and other popular education is a fun, intriguing way to broach certain "sticky" topics and allow adolescents to understand what they need to. I have learned that adolescents are complex individuals and operate on many levels when it comes to learning new information and that there are many ways they can be taught. I understand more deeply that the needs of adolescents have to be understood before trying to educate on sexual health as well as understanding the social and cultural contexts. All levels of the ecological model have to be tapped when creating a workshop/program and that it is a difficult task making sure all of the levels are covered. By opening up adolescents' minds to their consequences of their choices, by starting with the "now" consequences and expanding onto the "future" consequences, I realize that direct methods, guidance, and steps are needed for them to follow the development of what facilitators are trying to teach.

Actually facilitating a workshop for the first time was indescribable. I enjoyed reaching out to the youth and having them participate in our skill-building activities. Knowing that they will take something away from a workshop that I helped facilitate with other incredible group members, is really rewarding and I appreciate that this class gave us that experience. I cannot wait to have the opportunity to do this again in the future.

Through this class, with more practice and development of my facilitation and presentation skills, I feel more confident in my ability to create and conduct workshops for adolescents, especially with some reserved topics, such as those on sexual health. I believe now that all adolescents need is exposure to accurate information and the opportunity to expand and develop on what they learned, in order to absorb this information and actually act on it in the future. I will recommend to anyone who has the opportunity to take a class on adolescent health promotion and skill building to do so; if in GWU, then definitely this one.