This past weekend, Students For Choice, a Hopkins organization dedicated to spreading information about safe sex and making the "right" decisions when it comes to students' sex lives, hosted "Family Planning Feud." an event hosted at and funded by Nolan's.
Senior and President of Students For Choice Kate Mercogliano said that the event had been in the works since mid-September. She collaborated with eight other people to plan for it.
When asked why Students For Choice had chosen to host such an event, Mercogliano said that the group "wanted to educate people about what safe sex is and how we can practice it."
In order to prepare for this event, a survey was put out to the Hopkins student body, asking them various questions pertaining to birth control, sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and sex practices.
"How old were you when you both had sex?" and "Where have you gotten tested for STIs?" are two of the questions which showed up on the survey.
"The purpose of the survey was to learn about what students do and what they don't do, safe or otherwise, in their sex lives," Mercogliano said.
Students For Choice then took the answers to these questions and created the main part of this event, the Family Planning Feud game show, around them, hoping that it could help educate students further based off the answers received in the survey.
"A lot of the survey answers were like, "I don't know where to go," "Because I'm embarrassed," "Because I think I'm safe because I know my sex practice," Mercogliano said.
"We're here to tell people why they should get tested [and] the means to have safe sex . . . in a more fun way, rather than just lecturing people about STDs."
Family Planning Feud was based off the game show Family Feud: A question from the survey was posed to contestants who were then split into two teams, Team Comdom vs. Team Birth Control Pill.
The teams then had to guess the top five answers which had been received for that question. The more popular the answer, the more points that team received. The team with the highest points won various prizes, including pins or sex toys.
Despite the fact that the night started off with some technical difficulties, attendees appeared to have enjoyed themselves while also learning about how to practice safe sex.
Students of all classes, freshmen to seniors, were represented, and even some Hopkins alumni showed up to play.
After her team's victory in the first round of Family Planning Feud, alumn Liberty Tillemann-Dick told The News-Letter, "I thought it was very interesting to learn about the different preferences and lifestyle choices that Hopkins students are making, and it was interesting to hear the answer of the other team."
"It's good to have that knowledge out there, and [Students For Choice] work hard to get that knowledge out there, but people still miss it. It's a valuable tool to get the world out, and it was fun."
Sophomore Faradia Kernizan agreed.
"You learn a lot about your fellow students, and they gave us a bit of actual information about birth control and planning . . . it was informative and fun," Kernizan said.
Although Family Planning Feud was the main part of the event, Students For Choice also sold pro-choice t-shirts and pins for $6 and 25 cents, respectively, and gave out condoms, pamphlets, and other reading material regarding safe sex and information about STIs.
There was also a raffle and a movie about Crisis Pregnancy Centers was screened. "[The movie is about] how [crisis centers] lie to people about their contraceptives and abortion options," Mercolino said. "There is a bill before the city council right now to get the centers to reveal where to get abortions and contraceptives and . . . to make them more honest."
Overall, the night was a success according to Students For Choice. Students enjoyed the free pizza and the activities, and the group was able to get the word out on how to practice safe sex.
"I actually enjoyed myself . . . I went in expecting that they were going to try and convert me to be pro-choice, but I learned a lot and had fun while doing it," said one freshman, who preferred to remain anonymous.
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