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Rosemary Taing entered the University of California Santa Cruz in
the fall of 2003 far from her native hometown of Falls Church Virginia,
on a quest to expand her horizons and find her passion. After many
boring introductory biology and chemistry courses, Rosemary enrolled
in Human Sexuality and Female Physiology, which helped ignite her
enthusiasm and interest for women’s wellness and sexual health.
This newfound interest helped her get involved in the Health Promotions
Condom Co-op which provides safer sex supplies on campus at cost
effective prices. She also became a facilitator for Slug Love safer
sex workshops and Holistic Health workshops hosted by Residential
Advisors and special events on the UCSC campus.
Rosemary was accepted as the 2006-2007 Chancellor’s Undergraduate
Internship Program (CUIP) Intern for Student Health Outreach and
Promotions (SHOP). Her title role as Education Coordinator was filled
with numerous projects such as redesigning the existing safer sex
workshops, Slug Love, to become more educational and effective with
interactive activities and engaging discussions. Her biggest task
at hand was a collaborative project with mentors Jane Bogart and
Meg Kobe to restructure SHOP’s peer education program. Instead
of one day training in a specified topic such as facilitating Slug
Love or Holistic Health workshops, a select class of peer educators
would be trained during two quarter-long session. The first quarter
in spring 2007 would help lay the foundations of what makes a good
peer educator which included an extensive training and Baccus Gamma
certification. Skills acquired by peer educators included cultural
competence, how to utilize UCSC resources, how to deal with potentially
dangerous situations, and how to guide peers seeking help.
The CUIP course helped enrich Rosemary’s understanding of
the University power and money structure. She gained a better understanding
of how tuition money is distributed at both the UC and the UCSC
campus levels. She also became increasingly aware of the minority
retention programs and the obstacles students trying to graduate
from a four-year institution face. She also utilized the class for
networking to help promote events and engage with other organizations.
Rosemary plans to someday attend medical school to become doctor
with a focus in obstetrics and gynecology. She hopes to accomplish
her life-long goal of working with women and children desperate
for medical attention and resources through Doctors without Borders
in Cambodia, her native country. She hopes to help fight sexual
tourism and trafficking in Southeast Asian countries through international
public health and public policy agencies.
The CUIP program has helped her prepare for her plans by giving
her effective presentation and networking skills essential to her
success. She has also grown tremendously through the year as Education
Coordinator for SHOP. She has forged long lasting friendships with
her mentors and fellow interns and helped to shape a foundation
for a new breed of peer educators. These students will be better
prepared to engage with their peers in health related subjects such
as sexual health, alcohol and other drug abuse and overall wellness.
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