Category: yes+

brace fellows, Events, Speakers, Uncategorized, yes+

Love Better Week 2022

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Schedule of Events!

Monday

  • Brace Student Fellow Nina Choophungart ’22 presents her phenomenal research project, “The Meaning of Marriage: Exploring the Nature of Transnational Partnerships Between Isan Women and Western Men,” from 5-6:30 in the School Room (dinner will be served!).

  • Stop by the Brace student board’s Love Better table in the OWHL throughout the day today!

Tuesday

  • WoFo (Women’s Forum) hosts an open discussion about love and the body, introducing and problematizing the “body positivity” movement through an intersectional feminist lens: 7-8 PM in CAMD.

Wednesday

  • Join the Peer Listeners, Andover Loves, and other student leaders for open small-group discussions on consent culture and parietal policy, during dinner hours in the Mural Room (5-7 PM).
Justine Ang Fonte, our Love Better keynote! Join us in Davis Hall on Thursday at 7 PM.

Thursday

  • Our Love Better keynote address! Acclaimed sexuality educator Justine Ang Fonte will give a talk called “Pleasure > Power: Raising the Standard of Consent.” Davis Hall (Abbot Campus), 7 PM.   

Justine Ang Fonte is the child of Philippine immigrants and a nationally-recognized intersectional health educator, speaker, and consultant. She received her Master’s in Education in Teaching from the University of Hawai’i and her Master’s in Public Health in Sexuality from Columbia University. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Business Insider, NPR, and USA Today for her notable teaching career in sexuality education and according to a Buzzfeed List is one of 13 sex educators teaching people what they really need to know when it comes to sex. On Instagram, she’s known as “Your Friendly Ghostwriter” composing the texts you avoid sending about setting your boundaries.

Friday

  • All juniors and lowers will attend student-led YES+ talks during ASM Block! Juniors: Underwood Room. Lowers: Kemper Auditorium. 11:20-12, attendance will be taken.

  • Justine Fonte hosts an affinity space for all PA community members identifying as BIPOC, on “Decentering Whiteness in Beauty and Success,”12:15-1:15 in Underwood Room (lunch will be served!).

  • Abbot Independent Scholar Theo Baker ’22 presents his research project, “The President Who Could’ve Been: Conjuring Eleanor Roosevelt in the 21st Century,” in Kemper Auditorium from 6-7 PM (desserts will be served!).

This week’s programs wouldn’t be possible without the support of wonderful campus partners; special thanks to Ms. Jeter and Mrs. Fallon, as well as LCG, Dr. Tsemo, Ms. Goss, Dr. Cai, M. Martin, Mrs. Barnes, Ms. Ainsworth, the Wellness Collaborative, and the boards of Brace, YES+, Andover Loves, and WoFo. ❤

Abbot Academy, Events, Speakers, yes+

Take Back The Night 2020

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by Emma S. ’20

For the past five years the Brace center has organized a Take Back the Night march and vigil at Phillips Acadmey to stand in solidarity with all survivors and speak out against sexual assault, harrasment, and gender-based violence. Traditionally, our program has ended with a community circle on Abbot Campus uniting us in light and love.

While we are not able to gather together physically, many members of the extended PA community still stand together in support of survivors through song, dance, poetry, and word. Brace students and adults have worked together to create a video version of Take Back the Night that includes all of these messages of support and love. Our hope is that this video will unite us all in support of survivors and in the fight to end gender-based violence.

This video, and its content  deals with topics related to sexual assault, harassment, gender based violence, and self-harm. If you are feeling triggered or need a safe space, please visit some of these resources (https://bit.ly/tbtn_resources). Ensuring safety for yourself is a sign of strength, not weakness.

 

 

This video will go live on the evening of May 19th, 2020 – at the time that we would be starting this event on campus.  It will be available for viewing for a limited about of time.

If you are able, please join the Brace Center for a community conversation following the release of this video.  

Events, yes+

Yes+ and Bio100 collaboration on body-positive health education.

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Students in Intro to Biology (aka Bio100) attended several sessions by yes+, Phillips Academy’s peer-to-peer sex educators.  Led by Dr. Cath Kemp and José Navarro Peralta, Instructors in Biology, the initiative is part of a broader curricular design of the introductory biology class to embed relevant issues of race, gender, and sexuality into the science curriculum.  Since not all 9th graders take Bio100, some dorms and other 9th grade classes joined bio students for this presentation.

Some student reflections:

“I did not know that different people felt pleasure in different ways. This was meaningful to me because it shows that everyone is different, so communication in a relationship is important.”

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“I didn’t know that girls masturbated.”

“One thing I already knew was the important of protection when having sexual intercourse. I learned about this in 6th grade when I had my first sex-ed class. This is memorable because it is very important to my own health and the future partner’s health as well.”

“One thing I learned is the how frequent intersex babies are born.  This is important because it was something I barely though existed but learned that it is more common than I thought. This changes my thinking on the topic because it enforces the fact of how people are expected to choose a sex and doctors encourage “correctional” surgery to intersex babies.”

“Even though many of us were initially suspicious of this presentation, it was an important presentation. We never talk about it in class and it is great to talk about things that affect all of us. We don’t talk about it and I feel it is very valuable that we actually do.”