Students bare all in the name of self-confidence

They're in their underwear to make you aware.

By Samantha Savaglio

Walking down the hall, it is impossible to miss the posters hanging from walls and resting on easels picturing students in their under-garments. These images are part of the body-image awareness campaign put on by the Peer Health Educators (PHE) to promote self-confidence.

Julie Evans, Captain of PHE, says, "It is important to not only grow in knowledge, but to grow in understanding and acceptance of ourselves. Each individual is unique and special in their own way."

The revealing white garments against a bone-white background leave only skin and a few words to stand out--"comfortable in my skin," "loving myself," and "perfectly imperfect."

"We pose in our under-garments for a reason. It's as "bare" as we can get without being naked. It symbolizes our openness to who we really are," Evans says.

The PHE program works with Student Health & Counseling Services to educate students on current health and social issues. These are students working with students as peer-to-peer models, and what better way to instill self-confidence than to promote it yourself for the community to see?

This campaign is one of the passive programs that PHE puts on during the year. It premiered on campus in Spring 2006 and has reappeared three times since. It will run for the next 2-3 weeks.

"It is a risqué campaign and the team has to really believe in the campaign's purpose. It takes time and effort to find individuals who are willing to open up and reveal themselves to the entire student body," Evans says.

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ABOUT THIS STORY:

Story Status: Archived
Publish date: 12/6/2012

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