I am Woman

In honor of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, please join us THIS FRIDAY for a discussion on sex, gender, orientation, and what being a girl means to you.

Open to youth ages 13-24 who identify as female (cis, trans*, gender fluid are all welcome)

Date: Friday, March 27th

Time: 6:00-8:30pm

Location: MCCNY Charities

(446 West 36th Street- between 9th & 10th Avenues)

Transportation: 

A, C, E, 1, 2, or 3 train to 34th Street - Penn Station

There will be food, fun, and friends (both new and old)!


For more information, please contact Christina or Frances at (212) 289-3900 or email us at sync.nyc@gmail.com

 

 

[Growing Up, Going Up] Just Take Me! Applications, Resumes, and Interview Tips

Continuing our “Growing Up, Going Up” series, we had the chance to discuss a very important part of growing up: resumes and job interviews. We've talked about the basics and techniques related to both resume building and interviewing previously in SMART Youth, but last Friday was a casual discussion about our personal experiences with creating a resume and getting a job.

To quickly recap, resumes are extremely important because they are often the first impression employers get of you. Employers can receive hundreds of resumes and applications for just one position (and will only look at your resume for up to fifteen seconds), so it’s crucial that your resume is the best it can be! This way, you can make it to the next step, which is the job interview.

Many people find the idea of a job interview daunting. This is because we often feel unprepared for what could come. We touched on the basics for interviewing, such as how to dress the part, but one great takeaway is remembering to relax and be yourself. Another takeaway is remembering that even though you are being interviewed for the job, you are also interviewing the job! If you feel that the job position or the setting is not the right place for you, you do not have to take the job.

Although thinking about resumes and jobs may be scary, it doesn't have to be. With good support (and the help of SMART Youth!), you can conquer both the resume and the interview! 

[Growing Up, Going Up] Help Me, BuzzFeed! The Myers Briggs Personality Test & You!

Last week, we started our new workshop series called “Growing Up, Going Up”, which is designed to prepare our young people for their journey into responsible adulthood. In our first workshop, The Myers Briggs Personality Test & You, we discussed our personality types and how knowing them could help us when we think about interacting with others.

There are many personality tests out there, but one of the most common is the Myers Briggs personality test. This test is a questionnaire based off of four theorized components of our personalities:

• Extraversion/Introversion: These two indicate where you get your energy from. Extroverts draw energy from action and social interaction, while introverts draw energy from reflection and quiet alone time.

• Sensing/Intuition (Sensing function): These two indicate how you perceive, gather, and interpret information. Those who are sensing prefer when information is based off of something concrete, detailed, or factual. Those who prefer intuition like when information is abstract and theoretical.

• Thinking/Feeling (Judging function): These two indicate how you make rational decisions. People who are thinking types decide things using reason, logic, rules, and past experiences. People who are feeling types make decisions based on empathy, balance, and consensus.

• Judging/Perception: These two indicate how people express either their Sensing function or their Judging function. Someone who is categorized as Judging likes things to be settled and complete, while someone who is categorized as Perceptive likes to leave things open.

All of these combinations create 16 distinct personality types.

Although these are theoretical, knowing your personality type can be helpful in learning about your preferred working style, the career path that would suit your personality best, and how you work with others. These personality types are also not set in stone, meaning that being classified as feeling doesn’t mean you don’t have moments where you are not classified as thinking. Use these as a guide to learning for about yourself.

 

To learn more about the Myers Brigg test, and about each personality, check out these links:

• Take the Myers Briggs Test: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp
• Each personality type defined: http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/the-16-mbti-types.htm or http://www.16personalities.com/personality-types
• Your personality type and your career choice: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-careers-for-every-personality-type-2015-1

Where Are We Now? NYC Sexual Health Education Overview

Last week, a facilitator from the Adolescent AIDS Program at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore visited SMART Youth to give a presentation on sex education in NYC. Since 2011, New York City mandates that comprehensive sexual health must be taught in public middle and high schools. This is a big win for those of us who have been advocating for sexual health to be a requirement in schools, especially in middle schools.

The only issue is that not all schools are following through with this mandate. While some schools have started including sexual health in school curricula, many have not. Even if they are providing comprehensive sexual health, there is no standard practice as to who is teaching it and how it’s being taught.

C2P (Connect to Protect) Bronx conducted a survey asking high school teens in the Bronx about their experiences with sexual health education in schools. The results showed that not only were many teens receiving sexual health education after they started having sex, but that the type of information they were receiving was not as comprehensive as we would hope. Most students were taught about HIV/AIDS, condoms, and sexually transmitted illnesses, but only 56% of youth surveyed were taught about teen dating violence, 37% were taught about communication, and 26% were taught about supporting LGBTQ youth. Our young people need more information in order to make healthy decisions about their bodies. Knowledge is power!

We were told of ways to get the NYC government to hold Department of Education accountable for this mandate. Using the hashtags #EnforceTheMandate and #RealSexEd4NYC while tagging your local city councilperson and Mayor Bill DeBlasio is one easy way to show that you’re concerned with the ways sex is taught (and not taught) in NYC schools. 

SMART Youth March & April Calendar

 

Join us this March and April for our upcoming workshops! March will focus on our journey into responsible adulthood, and April will focus on healthy eating and nutrition!

 

We are also having our annual Women & Girls' Day Event, "I am WOMAN" at the end of March!

 

We hope to see you all!

Thank you to everyone who came out to Something for Everybody!

Our Valentine's Day Event "Something for Everybody" was a success! We were able to tie in what we learned throughout the weeks from our Taboo Talks workshops by playing games such as Taboo Taboo, Truth or Dare, and Speed Dating using a Sexual Inventory Stocklist!