On our first day of the Policy Institute, fellows gathered in the new LMS blackbox to prepare for the coming weeks of powerful and meaningful service. After our introduction, we dove right into the first of many activity-filled days. We began by listening to Amy Killy and her experience with the Addressing Sexual Assault and Consent track. She gave us a thorough overview of the topic and told us about previous action projects that ASAC groups had created, such as the Annual Summit on Sexual Assault and Consent. After learning about the background of our track, we met with Bobby Asher to learn about the neurobiology of the brain as it relates to sexual assault and more specifically trauma. Bobby covered many different topics such as the body’s tendency to either fight, flight, or freeze. He also explained what part of the brain is responsible for dealing with trauma and reacting to the situation at hand. Both Amy and Bobby taught our group many useful things to keep in mind as we continue on our journey. - Hayden '22

We started out the day with a wellness wake up where we meditated for about 15 minutes with the Environmental Justice track. Then we met with Chessy Prout and Jenn Ableson, two extraordinary speakers and people. Ms Prout is a survivor of sexual assault, having been assaulted by a senior boy during the spring of her freshman year. Today she talked with us about her personal experience with sexual assault, the legal process of a sexual assault report, and her outstanding advocacy afterwards. Ms. Ableson is an award winning writer, formerly on the Boston Globe Spotlight Team and now a writer for the Washington Post. She has written about sexual assault on college and high school campuses and a number of other shocking exposes involving fish and dual surgeries. Afterwards we had lunch in the High School building to escape our 50 degree room. After lunch we watched the documentary, Roll Red Roll which tells the story of a small town’s reaction to an infamous sexual assault. It was a gripping documentary that highlighted how different people react to sexual assault in their own town. We ended off the day by making stress balls out of flour and rice. I think it's safe to say that I made the best stress balls of today. - Jamie '22

Last week, the Addressing Sexual Assault and Consent track of the policy institute met with speaker Caitlin Bradley, a legal services director at the Virginia Sexual + Domestic Violence Action Alliance dedicated to eliminating sexual and domestic violence in the state of Virginia, who’s work has entailed direct aid services to survivors. Her lecture covered the ways violence occurs in both unhealthy and abusive relationships, ranging from the possible negative usage of tracking devices in a relationship, to gun violence. Members from the Addressing Sexual Assault and Consent track were accompanied by the Gun Debate track where vitalizing conversations and questions came up like the challenges and fears getting out of a violent relationship bring up; why toxicity in relationships publicized in mainstream media are favored by popular culture; the way abusers in reality often don’t mimic portrayals in movies or tv shows; what consent means and how it is not a long term promise with unchanging circumstances, coercion, or threats and more like a voluntary agreement to the proposals of another individual that is always reversible; and more. - Sofia '23

June 24, 2021 started as a normal morning for the Addressing Sexual Assault and Consent track of the Policy Institute with a 30 minute block focusing on the wellness of the fellows. Some of the options available were drawing, puzzle-solving, exploring the new lower-school, coloring, or simply relaxing. At approximately 10:00 AM, we logged onto Michelle’s zoom and began our session talking to members of the DC Forensic Nurse Examiners and the Network for Victim Recovery of DC, where we learned about advocates for survivors of sexual assault as well as the SANE test. Fun Fact: DC has no backlogged rape kits! Go DC! Next, the 9 fellows picked up our appetizing and flavorful lunches of chicken curry on a croissant and a singular strawberry. After, we watched a documentary called I Am Evidence, which shed light on the backlogged rape kits in major cities around the United States. Lastly, we spoke to Vinita Ahuja, the Director of Auxiliary and Extended Learning Programs, who explained in detail the policies that GDS has on Sexual Assault that occurs to students and the disciplinary actions that are taken. Overall, a very productive day! - Elsa '23

Today we met with Don McPherson and Amy Zubrensky. Before meeting with Don, we watched his movie about aspirational masculinity, which he defines as a more positive way to look at toxic masculinity. Then, we hopped on a zoom call and spoke with Don himself. Don is an ex NFL player, and now an advocate for sexual assault, domestic violence, and consent. After speaking with Don we got lunch and then hopped on another zoom call with Amy Zubrensky from the US Attorneys Office of DC. She explained to us how juries are made, how they react to trials and people on trial, and jury expectations. After speaking with her we wrapped up by working on our projects and then headed home for the day! -Jamie '22

June 28, 2021 began as a normal morning with health and wellness. The fellows made affirmation cards for The DC Rape Crisis Center. After that, two raising juniors Malvika Reddy '23 and Mila Noshirvani '23 come taught the fellows and do a collage about Sexism in the Media. The fellows used tabloids and other magazines to create collage. Some fellows used newspapers and words, while others used images and pens. Soon after the fellows logged onto a zoom meetign with storyteller Sam Carwyn. The fellows learned how to tell a story using framework and then the fellows were able to write their own story using what Sam Carwyn taught them. All in all, it was a very productive day for the fellows! - Pilar '23

June 29th, 2021, began as a normal morning. But due to air conditioning issues, the fellows moved to the high school to escape the 100-degree building. From 9:30 am to 12 pm, they read Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus. Next, the fellows decided to go off campus to grab lunch! Amongst some of the food choices were Panera and Roaming Rooster! At 1 pm, the fellows met with Shafia Zaloom. Zaloom is a health educator, parent, consultant, and author whose work centers on human development, community building, ethics, and social justice. She discussed with the fellows about healthy relationships, and they went over several scenarios regarding consent. After, the fellows did some policy exploration on sexual assault and consent. They looked into United States Federal Policies, and Washington, DC Policies. In addition, they reviewed American University, Howard University, and Georgetown University's policies and programs. - Victoria '24

This Tuesday began with the air conditioner breaking in the lower/middle school building. Due to the crazy heat, our whole group took a field trip to Michelle’s office in the high school! This field trip was extremely exciting because we not only got working air conditioning but also lots of candy provided to us by Michelle. We began our morning with a deep dive into our book; Sexual Citizens: Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus. This book explores the heavily prominent culture of sexual assault at Columbia University and Barnard College. After spending an hour reading through the beginning of the book, we got to meet with Shafia Zaloom. Shafia is a health and sex educator who logged into zoom to speak with us about caring and loving relationships. During this session, we learned about hookup culture, the involvement of alcohol in sexual scenarios, and what it looks like to give consent through actual examples. We spent a lot of time unpacking the prevalence of consent within these different sexual scenarios and what a healthy relationship actually looks like. After speaking with Shafia Zaloom it was time for lunch (our favorite time of the day). Most of us walked off campus to get a change of scenery and indulge in some filling food! After lunch, our track split up into three different groups to do some research on sexual assault/harrassment policies. One group researched United States Federal policies, another researched policies within Washington, DC, and the last group researched policies at American, Howard, and Georgetown University. To end off the day, each group shared each specific policy they researched to help prep us for our visit to AU and Lobby Day. - Natalie '22

This Wednesday began with an all institute assembly. Jen Mandelblatt spoke to us about lobbying and how to convey our ideas and thoughts. Later, we met with Russel Shaw, Head of School, who talked to us about the disciplinary actions for sexual assault. Finally, we joined the Waging Life in the DMV track to speak with DASH (District Alliance for Safe Housing). DASH provides housing for victims of sexual assault who are leaving abusive relationships. Unfortunately, we only met with Jessy because her coworker Kandice did not show up. Overall, it was a productive day. - Victoria '24

First field trip and the start of July. We met with Michelle Dagne who works at HPAC over at AU. Taking the walk through Tenleytown over to campus, we learned all about EmpowerAU and the services AU provides survivors. With the prevalence of sexual assaults occurring during college, we are able to use the information we learned to help start prevention earlier in order to proactively decrease the number of cases. On the walk back, we got the opportunity for an amazing Tenleytown lunch, enjoying the superb cuisine offered right here by the school.

To end our week we met with Ari Wilkenfeld, a law litigator and trial attorney who is a partner at Wilkenfeld, Herendeen, & Atkinson. He has over 20 years of experience as an attorney for plaintiffs, specializing in civil issues such as sexual assault. Mr. Wilkenfeld began his presentation by giving an overview of the MeToo movement and described the obstacles many survivors face when coming forward with their stories. After this short background lesson, we began to get into the main activity of the day: an interactive discussion with a debate-like format. Our track was split into two different groups, each one advocating for a different side of a heavily debated and controversial topic: Tara Reade's allegations of sexual assault against the then-presidential front runner, Joe Biden. One group would be defending Reades' side and the other would defend Biden. Our groups prepared arguments and counterarguments for a few hours before we engaged in a lively discussion. As we debated the issue at hand, Mr. Wilkenfeld critiqued and challenged different ideas that we presented, prompting us to craft more effective arguments. This activity allowed us to critically contemplate the different steps lawyers have to take when creating cases to be heard in court. - Hayden '22

On Tuesday, the Addressing Sexual Assault and Consent track spent the entirety of the day reflecting and conversing about the book, Sexual Citizens as well doing work on our action project and continuing to work on self care kits for the DC Rape Crisis Center (DCRCC). The conversation on Sexual Citizens revolved around the topic of campus sexual assault and the diversity of both perpetrators and survivors, or in other words, how neither a survivor nor a perpetrator looks or acts one way. The rest of day was spent with enjoyable and simultaneously difficult work on our action project of creating a middle school health curriculum with a focus on the topics of consent, sexual relationships in the media, and unhealthy vs. healthy relationships. And finally, the day rapped up with the group working on making stress balls and affirmation cards for the DCRCC.

Lobby Day has arrived! We started off the day in an all track meeting in the blackbox with a presentation about how to lobby to the best of our abilities. We then practiced our spontaneous speaking by rambling about a random topic for 20 seconds. Afterwards, we prepared for our meetings with the help of the lovely Liana who is a 2021 graduate at GDS. We had a decently good lunch of a steak and cheese sandwich accompanied by our favorite show Love Island (we watch this through a learning-analytical-educational lens of course) and then had a successful conversation with Leslie Annexstein, the AVP for Equity & Title IX at American University. Next, we lobbied Trent Holbrook, a staffer for our DC representative, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, and we actually ended up teaching him about Carries law! Overall, a very exciting day took place! - Elsa '23

This Thursday, began as a normalish morning except for the fact that a guest presenter was one his way. As soon as the guest presenter came into the room he scared Michelle, she screamed. The fellows began laughing. The guest presenter was Bobby Asher who was coming to hear what the culminating project and give his insight. - Pilar '23

On Friday of last week the Addressing Sexual Assault and Consent track met with jazz musician Wendy Eisenberg to talk about their experiences coping with traumatic experiences when having a career in music. Wendy talked about how providing a narrative through music about a personal and sometimes traumatic experience is often demanded by an audience because vulnerability is something people crave.They talked about the ways music or any passion often contains a consuming quality that can lead to some sort of disappearance and absorption. They discussed how disappearance is often a coping mechanism that one can use in order to avoid retraumatization. Furthermore, we talked about the normalization of sexualized music and the harm of a lack of questioning the status quo. It was a great, interesting, and challenging discussion! - Sofia '23

Stay tuned for an amazing vlog created by Edie Carey....

On July 13th, we spoke to Jeremy NeVilles-Sorell, an Indigenous man who is part of the Ojibwe Tribe in Minnesota. He spoke about his work in domestic violence prevention within his indigenous community and the program he worked with called Wica Agli. His work through Wica Agli helps to heal communities by healing men who have committed assault or domestic Violence. After lunch, we boarded our school bus to the Indigenous land of Piscataway Park. Upon arrival, we met with Hope Butler and Mercia Cummings: native Indigenous women. We first engaged in a healing circle which is a sacred tradition committed to helping one another in the healing process. Mercia and Hope then spoke in depth about their personal experiences with assault, and how they live their lives with the intent to heal and forgive. At the end of our trip, we participated in an activity where we threw dissolvable paper into the Potomac River to replicate all the things in our lives we wanted to let go. This whole experience really brought our track closer together after hearing such deeply personal stories from these women. - Natalie '22