The National Society for Black Women in Medicine invited Chinekwu Obidoa, associate professor of Global Health Studies and Africana Studies, to speak about sexual education on Sept. 24.
“Knowing what we know about college culture and how little is said about sex ed, we wanted to be able to host a session, specifically for minority women," organization President Chelsea Smith ‘27 said. "But we made sure it was open to everyone, where we could help educate others.”
Obidoa said she was not there to tell women that abstinence is the best form of sex ed. While Obidoa encouraged sexually active students to use condoms, she focused on clearing common misconceptions of what sex, namely, common sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which her own research specializes in.
Obidoa told students about many outside factors that can contribute to contracting STIs, such as family life and mental health, which Alyssa Ansley '27, the club's vice president, said was "totally new" idea to her.
Both Smith and Ansley expressed surprise at another point Obidoa made.
“You must protect more than your reproductive organs,” Obidoa said. “Practicing safe sex means protecting your mind and your heart as well.”
Much of the session followed an open conversation format, in which many people admitted they had never heard this advice before. Protecting your mental health and making sure you are ready mentally before being physically intimate is a big part of practicing safe sex, according to Obidoa.
“When we organized this session, we knew that many people from minority groups grow up in situations where they have no choice or opportunity but to follow the patterns their parents set,” Smith explained. “We wanted them to know how to protect their mental health and to be better educated on how to not fall back into the same cycles they grew up around.”
“Because I took her class before, I knew what kind of things she talked about,” Ansley said. “I knew she would be the perfect fit for what we wanted people to hear.”
Geetanjali Angara ‘29 is an International Affairs major at Mercer University and a staff writer at The Cluster. Her hobbies are reading, writing and playing piano. You can typically either find her with a good book or singing a Taylor Swift song.
