The AAPS Sexual Health Education Advisory Committee (SHEAC) recently chose CHS sophomore Lila Sarnecki and junior Emma Goblirsch as its student advisors for the year. After a long application process involving both a written and an interview section, Sarnecki and Goblirsch learned in late March that they had earned the positions. SHEAC is a committee that curates the content included in the AAPS health curriculum. It is made up of AAPS health teachers, parents, other adults in the community and two student advisors.
“The student advisors are brought on board to make sure that all of the language they put in any rules that they set, or in any standards that they have, is appropriate and inclusive and meets the needs of the current AAPS student population,” Goblirsch said.
CHS health teacher Becky Brent brought the position to the students’ attention, and both immediately jumped at the opportunity. Goblirsch and Sarnecki are both very interested in the topic of health education.
“I’ve always been super passionate about sex ed, as my seventh-grade health teacher can concur,” Sarnecki said. “And in this day and age when there’s a lot of uncertainty with what people get taught in schools and if they have access to that information, I think it’s super important that people should have access to comprehensive, well-done sex ed.”
The SHEAC student advisors serve a two-year term. The first meeting Goblirsch and Sarnecki will participate in will take place on May 13. Both students are going into this opportunity with goals they hope to achieve. Sarnecki hopes to add more LGBTQIA+ information to the curriculum, especially lessons about intersex individuals.
“As the times change, our curriculum also needs to change,” Sarnecki said. “So I hope that by being on this committee, I can bring an outside view to what we should change.”
Goblirsch has a similar hope. It’s important to her for teens to be educated for both their personal lives and their futures. She believes that, with the current administration’s position on sexual health and women’s rights, high schoolers need a certain curriculum to help them be as informed as possible.
“I want to set up the AAPS health classes with more information and just really secure the sexual education right now, so that at least for the next couple of grades, there’s some really good education,” Goblirsch said. “And hopefully, they’ll be the ones to pass that on later. We all have to work together and not fight against each other because really, we’re all just fighting to stay alive and have rights.”
Goblirsch and Sarnecki are both excited to step into their roles as student advisors for SHEAC, representing Community High School and its values as they do this important job.
