Countywide : Teens Fight Shyness to Talk About AIDS

Public speaking can become an embarrassing experience, especially when the topic is a sensitive one such as sex. But Orange County high school students are taking that risk to help their classmates avoid the deadly risk of contracting AIDS.

So far, more than 10,000 students have heard peer presentations through the Youth HIV/AIDS Volunteer Educators (Y-HAVE) program conducted by the Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross. This multicultural program began in late 1992 and was recently expanded with a grant from the Magic Johnson Foundation.

The new goal is to train at least two student educators at each of 38 local high schools during this academic year, and reach an additional 38 schools by the following year.

One of the certified instructors is Howard Shen, a Corona del Mar High School graduate who is starting his first semester at Orange Coast College. The 17-year-old Newport Beach resident admits he was “very nervous” during his first presentation last fall, but that didn’t stop him from going on to give more than 50 talks so far.

A few students have tried to embarrass him, he said at a Y-HAVE training session in Santa Ana last week. But the teen-agers quickly become attentive listeners when they understand the seriousness of the human immunodeficiency virus.

Some of Shen’s most powerful presentations occur when he brings in a healthy-looking former football player who contracted HIV through heterosexual sex. “A lot of girls think he’s cute” and tend to sit near him in the classroom, Shen said. Their admiration soon turns to shock, however, when the young man candidly tells his story of living with HIV.

Shen prefers to address groups of about 20 students, rather than impersonal general assemblies. With smaller gatherings, he is able to make the presentations entertaining and informative by playing games such as “Red Light, Yellow Light, Green Light.”

In this game, students categorize various behaviors as highly dangerous, somewhat risky or safe. These behaviors range from engaging in unprotected sex and sharing needles to hugging and French kissing.

One of the youngest peer educators is Miki Noguchi, a 14-year-old freshman at University High School. The Irvine resident began making presentations as an eighth-grader, sometimes to intimidating audiences of high school juniors and seniors.

A key to reaching the students, she said, is “to be at their level” and to control her nervousness.

John Hellriegel, recently hired by the Red Cross to manage Y-HAVE, said the program works because advice from a peer is often more meaningful than a lecture from an authority figure.

“We know that students listen to students,” said Hellriegel, a former U.S. history teacher. And this peer-to-peer communication can play a vital role, he said, in dispelling common myths about HIV/AIDS.