North Carolina Newspapers

Feb. 23, 2007 NEWS www.guilfordian.com Page 3 Greensboro. N.C. CAAP sponsors AIDS awareness summit Speakers suggest community service to easy suffering Deena Zaru I Staff Writer "We have to stop looking at AIDS as a face," said AIDS summit keynote speaker Thelma Wright. "We have to start realizing that it is a disease that does not discrimi nate." The Community Aids Aware ness Project (CAAP) held an AIDS summit on Feb. 18 in Founders Hall. It featured a presentation by James Shields on the importance of com munity involvement; a personal Dan Miller/Guilfordian Thelma Wright, Co-Chair of the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, gives the Keynote speech at the HIV/AIDS Aware ness AND Activism Summit on Sunday. story and brief history of HIV by sociology professor Martha Lang; an "AIDS: Here and Abroad" panel run by sophomore Martha Assefa and first-year Muhanji Afanda; the presentation by Wright and three workshop sessions. AIDS Fellows Erin Bums, a senior, and junior David Norton plaimed the event, along with sophomores Saron Smith-Harden and Marshall Jeffries. "No matter how educated you are, you can always learn more," said sophomore Joe Pelcher. "Just because things seem OK in our own communities does not mean that other places don't need our help." Wright said that the lack of fund ing has made AIDS a very serious problem because many people are losing inter est in it. "People have to spend more time fighting for the money instead of showing compassion to wards the patients," said Wright. "Martha Lang said one of the rudest ques tions people ask HIV patients is 'How did you get it?' as if it's the vic tims' fault," said Pelcher. "People think that if they are not promiscuous, if they are not gay, and if they are white that they can detach themselves from the disease, because they see it as a moral dis ease." Wright said that while she does not discour age people from being tested for HIV, there are hardships HIV-positive people face like lack of sufficient funding. "You need to look at what hap pens after you do get tested and find out that you are HIV-positive," said Wright. "So many people fall into the trap of thinking that they will be able to get the medication they need right away, but there is a long waiting list and it's hard for people to know they are HlV-posi- tive when medicine is not provided for them." "(Lang) put it into perspective how new of a problem AIDS is in this country, and how quickly it has become such a massive problem," said first-year Raji Ward. "I learned a lot about what it does to the body, and it also puts into perspective the severity of the disease." Thomas Clodfelter, a Greens boro resident, has been living with HIV for the past 16 years. "I chose to put myself out here because I want students to know that they can decide to live their life to their fullest potential, without stress, without drugs, and without prison," said Clodfelter. Josh Wynne, a graduate student at N.C. State found out that he is HIV-positive last April. "Having HIV has driven me and has given me a new focus in life," said Wynne. "I feel that my pur pose in life is to help (HIV patients) and others become more comfort able with the disease by educating them." Clodfelter emphasized the im portance of living responsibly as an essential part of HIV prevention. "I put myself and my life through hell as a teenager with all the drugs and the sex," said Clodfelter. "But, getting HTV was about change. I saw things differently, and I want ed to see that the future, the next generation, will learn to live differ ently. I want to start a path of being responsible." ^ Wynne stressed the importance of education for HIV patients, as well as others, so they can prevent this disease from spreading further. "(Learning that I am HlV-posi- tive) was extremely difficult and agonizing," said Wynne, "but if you just manage to keep some lit tle kernel of hope and can educate yourself and others about HIV, you become more empowered and bet ter able to deal with it." "During the James Shields pre sentation we talked a lot about bridging the gap between what we learn in the classroom and the rest of our life," said transfer first-year Harmah Johnston. "In essence we learned about applying what we learn in the classroom to our life experiences, which can be nurtured through community involvement." "You have a voice and your voice needs to be heard," said Wright, "and the most important place for your voice to be heard is in your legislative office." Both Qodfelter and Wynne hope that by getting involved with the Dan Miller/Guilfordian Students listen at the feb. 18 summit community and having open dia logue with people they can get rid of stereotypes about people who are living with HIV. "I'm here to let you know that you can make your life better by getting educated and getting in volved in your community," said Clodfelter. "People who have HIV are just people, and there's a lot of stigma out there, even in the gay commu nity," said Wynne. "I want to pres ent a human aspect of the disease — that I am not different than any one here." According to Smith-Harden, a satisfying number of people at tended. "I was really happy with the turnout," said Smith-Harden. "I think aU of the workshops were re ally informative and powerful, and the fact that we had a debriefing session gave us ideas about what to plan for the future." "I'm very proud of the fact that we have dedicated students on this campus who have the ability and the want to put together such an or ganized event," said Ward. CCE students feel resented by traditional students Continued from page I Henning." I want CCE students to be comfortable. I want them to feel that this is their campus just as mudTas anyone's. Together with CCE senior Eva Griffin, Henning is pushing to cre ate a mentoring program for adult students. This program would pair up current CCE students with incoming ones, who many times need some help adjusting to campus. "If you have someone who's been through the program here, it allows new students to have someone to call on for help or di rection," said Griffin. "It's about helping students through that first semester." Even with new measures be ing taken, many students still feel a definite divide between tradi tional and CCE students. "I feel the divide quite a bit. I don't feel like a part of the campus at all," said CCE junior Lori Grif fin. "It's not very pleasant for us, the CCE students." Some think that this divide is fueled in part by traditional stu dents' animosity towards their older classmates. This animosity is expressed in a variety of ways, from Facebook groups created by traditional students rallying against the program, to openly vocalized resentment of CCE stu dents. "When I hear traditional students verbalizing that we shouldn't have CCE students, I have to ask myself, why?" said Serotkin. "There's no question they're at different points in their lives, but on a campus like Guil ford's, you'd think people would be more open-minded." "I've heard my peers com plain about what CCE students dents have kids and families; they have done, but (traditional stu- have different lifestyles." dents) are guilty of the exact same "The idea of a unified college things," said sophomore Laura is great," said Serotkin. "But in Weigel. "What makes traditional reality, I don't know how well it students any different? This is would work. CCE and traditional Guilford. We're supposed to be accepting of all kinds of diver sity here." Both students and faculty have voiced the idea that perhaps the divide is un avoidable, in the same way that having a com pletely unified college is improbable. "I don't think people are neces sarily trying to create the divide. It just happens," said CCE senior Charmaine Morales. "CCE stu- “When you have a campus divided, it’s not just divided be tween two groups. It’s divided between all groups." Eva Griffin '07 students have very different lives." Despite any tensions faced within the com munity, the CCE program keeps its goal of offering everyone a chance at continuing their education. "The main thing is to work on helping students succeed and giving them the right tools to do so," said Serotkin. "I think the program says to the community of Greensboro that education is a lifelong pro cess," said Henning. "You don't have to end it when you hit 23 or when you finish your graduate degree. It's going to happen your whole life." For some, the tensions between traditional and adult students re flect larger, more deeply rooted issues. "When you have a campus divided, it's not just divided be tween two groups," said Eva Griffin. "It's divided between all groups. We need to come together and be unified because we're all one community." "Living in a community like this takes openness, and openness is hard," said Aaron Fetrow, dean for campus life. "Diversity is hard. It's much easier just to stereotype, but we have to ask students on both sides of the question to take the hard approach."