AIDS, LOVE & STAYING ALIVE
This presentation begins with a lecture on the origins and detailed story of
Scott's HIV disease, his infection at age 24, how he has survived over 17
years, and how he has turned a curse into a blessing. Scott places the
reality of HIV infection in a context all young people can understand:
vulnerability, loneliness, isolation and hopelessness. In this 90-minute
presentation, the audience experiences a transformation from "scared to
sacred" by learning how to become philosophical about the mistakes they
make. It ends with a musical video montage of the many faces and voices of
Scott's friends who have died from AIDS. Potential Audiences: This lecture has campus-wide appeal and lends
itself to broad co-sponsorship. The program is recommended for peer
educators, fraternity/sorority students, AIDS Awareness clubs, resident
advisors, gay-straight alliances, AIDS Awareness clubs, SADD members, and
various student organizations. Can be adapted to middle school audiences as
well.
SEX, STIs & AIDS 101:
Everything You Always Wanted to Know But Were Never
Really Taught
Scott brings to this program over a decade's experience as an educator in
the areas of sex, sexuality and HIV/AIDS. This is an extremely important
conversation wherein participants discuss the definition and mechanics of
safer sex, correct condom use, the risks of oral sex, alternatives to sexual
intercourse, sexual self-respect and modes of transmission of all sexually
transmitted diseases/infections, especially AIDS. Potential Audiences: This program works best in a more intimate setting
in which students can feel free to ask any question and where there is the
time for Scott to answer in a full and personal way. Settings may include:
Health classes, Biology classes, peer counselor workshops, residence life
training programs, follow up sessions to Scott's "AIDS, Love and Staying
Alive" program. Can be adapted to middle school audiences as well.
AIDS & THE JEWISH STUDENT The AIDS crisis is not over and neither is the obligation of Jews to address
it. Scott offers a religious perspective on the subject of HIV/AIDS in
light of Jewish imperatives such as B'kur Cholim and P'kuach Nefesh. This
program provides a religious and cultural perspective on the AIDS crisis by
incorporating formal Jewish text and current Jewish philosophy/poetry in
order to illustrate how Jewish students should not only act as agents for
change in our community but, more importantly, value their own lives in the
face of life-challenging situations. Potential Audiences: This workshop is a winner with Hebrew schools,
Jewish Day Schools, rabbinical students, Jewish youth groups, Hillel
students and the professionals who work with these emerging adults.
INHABITING THE INVISIBLE KINGDOM:
Lessons of Hope and Heartache from the
Secret Lives of Teenagers
This workshop connects with the hidden world of young people, illustrating
their feelings of isolation and separateness and teaching them to embrace
the difficult issues that arise as they grow toward full adulthood. Scott
shares the story of his own risk behavior and HIV infection when he was
young and how his own journey has led him to share in the lives of hundreds
of thousands of young people as they try to make peace with life's demanding
circumstances. Using music and real emails from teens in crisis, Scott takes
workshop participants through such topics as sexual responsibility, drug and
alcohol abuse, eating disorders, and self-mutilation, among others and ties
together a central theme of loneliness and seclusion. This talk helps all
young people answer the question that haunts each of them: "Is it safe to
be alive?". Potential Audiences: High school and college students and those who work
with and care about them: teachers, parents, counselors, principals.
"DO I LOOK FAT IN THIS?"
Eating Disorders, Body Image and You (For Women
Only)
This discourse deals with women's issues, covering topics such as body
image, sexuality, dating, refusal skills and self-abuse. The exploration
includes: learning to find peace with an inner existential void,
ascertaining the causes of negative thinking, recognizing prejudices and the
ensuing competition and addressing self-destructive behavior in women. The
program concludes by searching for compassionate ways to redress the
situation. Potential Audiences: Sororities, feminist student groups, peer
educators, Women's Studies organizations, student life professionals.
THE
CLOSET MONOLOGUES:
Coming Out and Embracing your Sexual Orientation The issues facing today's LGBT young people are both as old as time and as
new as today's headlines. In this program, Scott addresses many of the
challenges and responsibilities facing gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgendered youth. The program deals with how societal shame can transform
into internalized self-hatred and thereby cause a multiplicity of risk
behaviors. Program discussions also include disclosure issues and what it
really means to be "in the closet" or "out." Potential Audiences: LGBT students, peer educators, gay-straight alliances,
student support personnel, parents, teachers, clergy. THE SHELF-LIFE OF GRIEF:
A Seminar on Death and Dying
Many people, especially teenagers, are unprepared for the death of a loved
one. Lacking experience with the emerging levels of grief, it is difficult
to make sense of the situation in the midst of crisis or through the
mourning process. Seminar topics will address the stages of mourning, the
psychology of grief, a comprehensive discussion on the ways in which we die,
notions regarding the after-life, and how to help others grieve. Scott
brings to this important seminar the everyday challenge of facing his own
mortality and the tangible loss of over 130 friends to AIDS. Potential Audiences: College students, high school students, grief
counselors, church and synagogue youth group members and leaders, clergy,
parents.
"THAT'S
SO GAY!"
Why We Bully, Gossip, Haze, Backstab, Taunt and Hurt
Others This workshop underscores the power of words and the ways in which they can
hurt, as well as heal, others. Scott outlines and discusses different types
of calumny, including the use of speech to wound, manipulate or lie, and how
it not only hurts others, but damages our own soul's development. This
workshop offers ways to help revert this harmful behavior, including
techniques for better listening skills, non-verbal and silent communication,
forgiveness and self-reflection. Potential Audiences: Middle school, high school and college students and
those who work with and care about them: teachers, parents, counselors,
principals.
HEARING OUR CHILDREN:
The Parent Talk
How to
Learn about the Secret Lives of your Son & Daughter Without Reading their
Diaries
This is always a very moving and important conversation. Through detailed
personal accounts of teens from around the world, this talk reveals the
secrets most teens would like to keep from their parents. Using himself as
Exhibit A, Scott shares the difficult story of his painful disclosures to
his own family. Additionally, this talk offers specific ideas and
techniques on parenting a teenager through this difficult time of adolescent
angst and their burgeoning experiences as the newest members of the sexual
community. Potential Audiences: Parents, educators, counselors and anyone who cares
about today's teens.
LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD:
High Schools, Heartache and Hand Guns The main text for this talk comes from real-life examples of more than
twenty nationwide school shootings and the stories behind the shooter's
lives, including those at Columbine and Heritage High Schools. We
examine the root causes of these tragic events, investigating the myths
and realities of their origins in the media, music and availability of
guns. In addition, the students are asked to consider how this problem
directly impacts their lives and their school communities in order to
recognize the roadblocks to change. Topics for further discussion: Why
is there a lack of school support for clubs like SADD, GSA, Red Ribbon
Project, Day of Silence and Peer Leadership Group, and why do we leave
out the 'heartache factor' when discussing this subject? Potential Audiences:College students, high school
students, church and synagogue youth group members and leaders, school
counselors.
In addition to the aforementioned lectures, Scott has also given talks
on the following subjects:
Courage in the Face of Illness
The Casualties of Love: How to Survive a Broken Heart
Judaism and Homosexuality:
In connection with a showing of the
documentary Trembling Before G-d
Gay Media vs. Gay Reality
What Will You Hear?
At
the Middle School level:
The day includes three separate one-hour assemblies to the entire middle
school, each delivered with age-appropriate material. The 6th grade class
learns about the consequences of bullying, the power of words, and the ways
in which they can hurt as well as heal. The 7th grade class learns about
refusal skills, emotional safety and Scott's story of HIV. The 8th grade
class hears a combination of both, as well as an intensive study into their
secret lives. The rest of the day is devoted to smaller classroom
conversations for the 8th grade students, which serve as follow-up and
question/answer sessions.
At
the High School Level:
The day begins by combining 1st and 2nd periods for an all-school assembly,
or an entire grade, at the very least. The rest of the day is devoted to
smaller classroom conversations which act as debriefing sessions. More
importantly, this format provides a safer setting for those students that
may not have the courage in the large assembly to ask the more pertinent and
personal questions. Following the final period of the day, there is an
"after-school group" meeting, with either the GSA, SADD, or AIDS Ribbon
Club. The day ends with an important evening conversation for the parents,
as part of a regularly scheduled PTA meeting or special event.
At the College/University level:
Scott commits to doing at least three lectures beginning with a huge
campus-wide presentation involving as many students as possible, pertaining
to the spiritual and emotional issues surrounding the secret lives of
college students. This talk is open to fraternity/sorority students, as well
as the GLBT, AIDS Ribbon Project members, and other various campus
organizations that are willing to get involved. The second talk can be a
smaller, yet extremely important session, pertaining to sex and transmission
of STIs, the "everything you always wanted to know but were never really
taught" talk. This session usually follows the keynote address, in a
different, more intimate setting. For a Jewish perspective, on a Friday
night oneg, or an afternoon lunch and learn, this discourse provides the
religious and cultural angles as well as incorporate formal Jewish text and
current Jewish philosophers/poets in order to illustrate a better way in
which to value our lives. For a more creative format, Scott can speak in an
informal setting, such as a rap session in a specific dorm lounge or
individual club or sorority; teaching part of or all of a class, i.e.,
Health or Intro to Psychology 101, etc., and finally, a moving talk with the
LGBT or Pride Group on campus.
Weekend Retreats:
Specifically geared for BBYO, NFTY and USY
events The weekend begins with a 90-minute keynote address on Friday night,
delivered to all the participants and advisors/staff. Subsequent sessions
take place throughout the following day, including but not limited to
"separates." These gender-specific talks enable the teens to more freely
process and discuss their feelings that arise during the keynote address.
The extended time period of a weekend retreat allows for more one-on-one
discussion with the teens and gives them a chance to truly be seen and heard
on a more individual basis. The weekend ends with a Sunday morning
friendship circle.
