Nashly

Peer Leader at High School for Service and Learning at Erasmus

Transcribed from an audio interview. Responses have been edited for clarity. 

As one of the peer leaders at HSSL, I give workshops, sometimes at other schools, to inform students and get feedback on a wide range of stuff, including healthy relationships, pronouns, and more. Just last week we went to a school in Queens. We had workshops in I think 4 different classes, and I did it with two other students — 2 other peer leaders. The main topic was toxic and abusive relationships, and how other students felt about it. 

I’m in 11th grade, and I got involved with RAPP [the Relationship Abuse Prevention Program] last year. I remember I was just looking for my friend, and I found out they were in this classroom, and I just came and I sat down. I heard what they were talking about and I got interested. 

This summer, I participated in SPLI [the Summer Peer Leadership Institute], and I would gladly do it again if they would have me. It was fun. I don’t know how everybody else saw it, but I kind of saw it as a group therapy type thing. Everyone was just so open to learning about different things. I already knew about [using people’s personal] pronouns and stuff, but being a peer leader has broadened my horizons about how people really have thought about it. Like I didn’t know there was so much to it. And I learned so much more about toxic and abusive relationships.

If more students get involved, it would make our community a better place. If everybody’s informed, then there would be less bigotry and stuff like that. Plus, if they get involved, then you can involve other students, like how I got involved because of my friends. When I went to the other schools, at first, they were not super interested to join the conversation, but by the time we left they were excited about it. 

I just want Day One to involve a lot more people and grow as an organization. The more information that other students have, the better it will be.

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