AIDS On Campus

            As you may know from our background information on our introductory blog, we are all students from the University of Colorado-Boulder.  In walking the campus this week I found an unusual formation of flags and signs dispersed across one of the quads. I discovered that the demonstration was being put on by BCAP and spreading awareness of HIV/AIDS on campus. As a student at CU I have come to be almost oblivious to most demonstrations, but this one seemed to stick out to me. Not only was there a large number of flags put in place around the grass, but also large pieces of quilts that had pictures and writing on them. In talking to some of the staff under the BCAP tent I found out that this event was to spread awareness of HIV/AIDS using the national NAMES quilt and statistics of those people that have passed away from AIDS.

 Man observing one of the pieces of the NAMES AIDS Quilt on Norlin Quad on the CU-Boulder campus. The sections of quilt are made in memory of someone that died of AIDS. The NAMES Memorial Quilt (http://www.aidsquilt.org/)

One of the informational signs found around the quad, in place to get passerby attention.

In order to spread the word around campus to students and faculty passing by there was also the use of signs with facts about AIDS and statistics meant to get passerby attention. These signs were put in place to not only state facts to some misconceptions about AIDS, but also to put in perspective just how costly AIDS can be and how many unfortunate people there are in our society that need help. One sign talked about how AIDS is spread not only through sexual contact and blood, but also through breast feeding. These sorts of messages hopefully can get students to become more aware of AIDS and hopefully take precautionary steps to avoid the further spread of this disease.

Table set up to hand out information and condoms to students in order to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS.

BCAP was also handing out condoms as a way to further spread awareness. I think it is a great idea to use a variety of tactics to help in educating the college population about the prevention of AIDS. BCAP and the people that put on this demonstration used different stimuli to help showcase the fact that AIDS is not just a disease affecting people over in Africa and 3^rd world countries, it is clearly evident in our society and there needs to be the spreading of awareness to those around us. I hope that this demonstration and BCAP’s presence on campus can have positive effects on the students’ population and continue to raise awareness to not only college students, but society as a whole. If the college and young adult community can continue to be educated on AIDS and contrubute to the prevention, we as a society can hopefully wipe the catastrophic AIDS virus out.

Over 400 Flags symbolizing those infected and those who have died from AIDS.

By Zach Kincaid

The NAMES Quilt is a nationally recognized quilt that remembers those who have died from AIDS. It was started back in 1987. “The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a poignant memorial, a powerful tool for use in preventing new HIV infections, and the largest ongoing community arts project in the world”, is listed on the NAMES Quilt website. In doing some research on the quilt and reading this quote I find it very interesting that BCAP and the campus would take part in using the quilt to spread awareness. I, like many other students am a visual learner and using this quilt and showing those that have fallen to AIDS provides strong evidence to showcase just how much of a presence AIDS still has in our society.

The Colorado Kid

Hey readers,

I am the last member of the group that is dedicated towards creating a blog for Boulder County Aids Project.  When we initially met with BCAP we were told about how we were supposed to share our honest, open perspectives on AIDS.  So I thought I would start by first sharing a little about myself.

My name is Taylor Petersen and I am currently a senior accounting major at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  I was born and raised a Buff fan in Littleton Colorado, and have loved my time at CU.  In my opinion there is no greater state than Colorado and no better school than CU.                                               

I am really close with my family which includes my mom Barb, dad Tom, younger sister Katherine, and younger brother and newest CU student Connor.   I love to travel, ski the Rocky Mountains, and cycle.  This summer I raised $5000 and cycled across the country to benefit people with disabilities. 

          

My experience with, as well as, my knowledge of AIDS is very limited.  While I was raised Catholic and grew up in a conservative area, I never heard anything negative about the disease.  In fact, the first real exposure that I had to the disease was in biology class in middle school.  I have never knowingly met anyone with AIDS to date.  Honestly, the only real thing that popped into my head about AIDS before working with BCAP was the famous basketball player Magic Johnson. 

However, in meeting with BCAP I was astonished to hear about the fact that over 200 new cases of HIV/AIDS have appeared within Colorado in the past year.  Moreover, through research I have become increasingly alarmed by some of the facts that have come up.  Did you know that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates there are about 1.1 million HIV-positive people in the United States. Of that number, they estimate 21 percent are unaware of their HIV status AIDSmeds.com.  That means that it is estimated that more than 200,000 people are out there completely clueless that they have the disease.  This is scary because they not only are people not getting proper treatment, but they could also unknowingly be passing on the disease.

On the bright side, I was so encouraged by how many resources a place like BCAP can provide to people infected with HIV.  I found it incredibly impressive that they are able to provide such things as medical care, pro bono professional services, a sense of community through support groups and mentor programs, and even a market with nutritional foods.  To check out a list of these services and more follow this link: http://www.bcap.org/what_case_service_programs.html.   

Overall, this semester I am curious to learn more about HIV/AIDS and see what I can do to help BCAP. 

        

                      

Another Contributor, A New Perspective

Hi Everyone!

My name is Alex Lane, and I am a contributing member to the Boulder County Aids Project blog. Our group’s focus for this blog is to candidly provide our personal perspectives regarding HIV/AIDS, so in order to provide context for my insight, allow me to further introduce myself and personal background. I am a senior majoring in finance at CU Boulder who is quickly approaching graduation this December. Although my academic life is quantitatively driven, I consider myself a very creative person. I have a deep-rooted love for the fashion industry, and I spent this past summer interning in New York as a YMA fashion scholar. I take pleasure in the simplest of things: people, film, food, and Rioja, and have a million goals, my current priority being to land a job on Wall Street. So now that you have a little context, I will transition into how my background has shaped and changed my opinion towards AIDS.

My hometown has more Evangelical Christian churches per capita than any other city in the world, conservative is an understatement when describing the culture of Colorado Springs. AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease, so it is only natural to associate AIDS with sex. Growing up in an environment where sex has a sinful connotation, however, I associated AIDS with sex and sinners and sinners having sex, a fear-driven attitude of a naïve pre-teen essentially. AIDS was a taboo subject in my world, so unless we were addressing children in Africa who were infected by the virus who were in need of both medicine and missionaries, we didn’t discuss the matter. It wasn’t until I grew older, probably about 16, that I even questioned the logic behind the prevailing judgment that blinded my understanding of HIV/AIDS.

As my independence grew, so did my perceptions. Starting with the first time I saw Rent, I began to gravitate towards people with accepting views and pursued liberal, expressive environments. I have learned about HIV in the context of pandemic, from exposure to Christina and Gaga speaking for MAC’s GLAM campaign.  I’ve discovered the different methods of transmission, even simple breast-feeding can spread AIDS, and closest to heart, I have learned about the disease from people in my life. Two of my friends have contracted the virus, and must fight it everyday for the rest of their lives. With a more diversified view of HIV, I no longer regard those who suffer as sinners, but rather as victims. It is my personal objective for this blog to share my perspective and to rid the stereotypes held towards HIV/AIDS and those infected by the virus. Throughout the semester, I want to engage in discussion with you in order to stop judgment and stimulate preventative action.

The California Kid

Hi Readers!

Welcome back to another edition of our blog! My name is Taylor Stephan and I will also be blogging for Boulder County Aids Project (BCAP), spreading awareness and sharing my views and perspectives about HIV/AIDS. I hope to be as honest and open minded as I can while I blog for BCAP.  Besides that, here’s a little background information about myself. I am a business student at the University of Colorado-Boulder and studying for a major in marketing. I am a white, 20 year old male, with no particular religious beliefs. I was born and raised in Southern California in a pretty liberal environment. My family and I enjoy the ocean and other outdoor sports such as tennis, skiing, and mountain biking. I do read certain blogs on the internet but I personally have no experience when it comes to writing one.

As my knowledge pertaining to HIV/AIDS goes, I know very little and don’t personally know anyone who is infected with the disease. Some information that I do know off the bat about HIV/AIDS is that it is transmitted through direct contact, not through the air, and the disease severely weakens ones immune system.  I feel that many people my age don’t know that much about HIV/AIDS. Whether this is because they grew up in an environment that didn’t stress learning about this disease or that there simply wasn’t available information to everyone, I’m not too sure. I’m not an expert on the subject of HIV/AIDS by all means but after sitting down with BCAP at our initial meeting, I really learned a lot and gained a broader, more in depth view about the subject. I learned that besides the disease being physically devastating, it can be financially devastating as well. HIV/AIDS medication is very costly and puts just as much of a burden on the victim as does the physical disease, among other things.

I hope to learn more throughout the semester by working with BCAP and researching with my group I can help spread awareness and better educate myself as well as the general public about HIV/AIDS.

For More Information Please Visit www.bcap.org  

A First Perspective

Hi readers,

I would like to personally welcome you to our blog for the Boulder County Aids Project (BCAP). My name is Zach Kincaid and I am one of the bloggers dedicated to giving my perspective on AIDS and BCAPS fight to spread awareness. I would like to first give you all a background of myself and where I come from.  I am a business student at the University of Colorado-Boulder and a major in marketing. My upbringing has been based upon strong family values and on strong Christian views. I am a white, heterosexual male, and a devout Lutheran. This blog is a brand new experience to me in regard to not having much knowledge on the topic of AIDS and also having no exposure to anyone infected with HIV/AIDS.

            When I hear the expression HIV/AIDS I immediately think of all the people over in Africa that are dying every day from the lack of knowledge and awareness, but the fact that it exists in our American society is something that doesn’t even come to mind. Maybe it’s the “bubble” or suburb that I grew up in or the vast lack of awareness in our society, but I don’t even think about HIV/AIDS affecting those around me. Believe me, I am not trying to be stubborn, I am just being honest in the fact that I know close to nothing. This is an idea that I feel many people my age and in the college environment share. Until meeting with the people at BCAP I was unaware about the prevalence in society around us and the lack of knowledge that I have, and feel college kids and young adults as a whole have on HIV/AIDS. In our initial meeting with Dan from BCAP, I learned more than I had ever known before about the prevalence of AIDS in Colorado and the devastating effects it has on people. One thing that really stuck out to me in the meeting were all the underlying effects that AIDS has on a person, but also what BCAP does to help with these. I had previously been oblivious to the fact that AIDS causes so many problems in financial, housing, and even basic necessity aspects of a person’s life. I quickly learned that AIDS can have so many lesser known effects than just the virus and health aspect itself. This was a scary thought, but I was also introduced to the department heads that handle these fields for clients and reassured that people with AIDS would get the help they needed from the BCAP staff.  I hope that working with the wonderful folks at BCAP and learning more about their mission and organization that I can become better educated and hope to spread awareness to my peers in order to hopefully one day rid Boulder and all society of HIV/AIDS.

Welcome to the Boulder County AIDS Project student blog!

So what are four college students doing writing a blog for a non-profit?   

We are all currently enrolled in an upper division writing and rhetoric class at the University of Colorado.  Our particular section is special in that it is a service learning course that allows us to work with nonprofits in the Boulder area.

The Visionary - Anna MacBriar 

Our group was paired up with Boulder County AIDS Project (BCAP) in order to create a blog with a fresh and open perspective about our impressions concerning HIV/AIDS.  Already in meeting with BCAP and through research I was astonished to hear some things that I had previously been ignorant to.  For example, did you know that HIV can get passed down by a mother infected with HIV breast-feeding to their child? Moreover, I was further enlightened that you can never really tell if someone is infected with HIV.  A great reminder that I should always be having safe sex and that is never a bad idea to get tested. (Facts found on BCAP.org)

BCAP provides free condoms and testing for HIV!

*When acquiring a new sex partner, abstain or use condoms for three months and then get tested for HIV. If both partners are HIV-negative and not engaging in other risk behaviors like sharing needles or having other sex partners, you do not have to worry about HIV infection. (http://lifelongaidsalliance.org/hivprevention)

Tile memorial wall at BCAP

Our group consists of four business students at the University of Colorado: Alex Lane a senior finance major, Taylor Stephan a junior marketing major, Zach Kincaid a junior marketing major, and myself Taylor Petersen a senior accounting major.                           

   

Throughout our fall semester we will document our individual experiences in working with BCAP.  We hope to blog about such things as getting tested for HIV/AIDS, interviewing BCAP’s experienced staff, speaking with clients, attending BCAP events, and further learning about fellow student’s impressions on HIV/AIDS.  More specifically, you can look forward to us diving into such issues as the effect of the new health care legislation on those affected by HIV/AIDS and researching and experiencing projects dedicated to the remembrance of those lost to AIDS (http://www.rememberproject.org/).

The overall goal of our blog is to provide different college student’s perspectives on HIV/AIDS, spread awareness to the student population, and to personally gain a greater understanding of HIV/AIDS!                                                                                      

For the next few blogs we will be posting individual bios in order to share more about ourselves and our impressions about HIV/AIDS. 

The Bloggers (Zach, Taylor S., Alex, Taylor P.)