The students agreed to take up the project at the suggestions of Whitman County Health Department Nurse Judy Stone.
“I needed help in raising awareness in the community among the public and professionals that HIV is here and that the health department offers a wide range of services in prevention and direct care,” Stone said.
In response, the students initiated a wide range of activities, including performing skits about the causes and prevention of the disease at
We wanted to really hit the students where they live to make them realize that HIV is real in their world,” said team member McKenna Hudson,.
The majority of the team members also have voluntarily been tested for HIV/AIDS to lend credibility to their campaign to get their peers to undergo testing. They will have an informational booth set up in Compton Union Building Room B7 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Nov. 9. WSU Health and Wellness will provide free, private HIV/AIDS testing there from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
WSU Professor Kim Kidwell, who team teaches HD 205 with instructor Krista Petty, said the class, subtitled “Navigating Life,” is designed to help students improve as individuals, as members of a team and as contributors to their community. The required service learning projects partner student teams with local non-profit or governmental agencies. Other projects this year include building community at a senior citizens apartment complex and working with school children to decorate restrooms at Neill Public Library in
“It has been awesome to watch the community partners get excited about working with the students and the students get excited about working with their partners,” Kidwell said. “Nurturing a sense of home here is so important to the success of these kids, and working in the community does that.”
Petty agrees. “Tackling a community service project together is fabulous for learning team building, conflict management, interpersonal communications, accountability, proposal writing and presentation skills,” she said.
Kidwell, whose primary assignment is as a spring wheat breeder in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences in the
Available for interview:
McKenna Hudson, team member (206) 229-5559, kenners53@hotmail.com
Erin Madison, team member (206) 947-3555, aneece2@msn.com
WSU Professor Kim Kidwell (509) 335-7247, kidwell@wsu.edu
Judy Stone, Whitman County Health (509) 397-6280, judys@co.whitman.wa.us
Karen Curry, Pullman School District nurse (509) 332-1551, kcurry@psd267.wednet.edu
