On 27 January 2021, Flavia Vidal and Susan Tsao Etsy (Ph.D) will present a webinar on how they approach Inclusive Peer-to-Peer Sexual Education within their school.

Session Description:

Recent studies, including a data analysis performed by SHIFT, the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, suggest that strong, inclusive, ongoing sexual education in middle and high school correlates with lower rates of sexual assault in first-year college students. Given the higher rates of students of color and LGBTQ+ students experiencing sexual assault in college, a strong and inclusive, intersectional sexual-education program may be seen as a social-justice mandate for all schools. Learn about the work of YES+ at Andover, including the group’s selection and training processes, and the techniques and ideas they have used to make forward progress in integrating race, class, gender and sexuality into Andover’s overall curriculum.

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About the Speakers:

Flavia Vidal (she/her/hers) is Director of the Brace Center for Gender Studies and Instructor in English and Interdisciplinary Studies at Phillips Academy, Andover, where she has taught for 18 years. Flavia holds a B.A. from Hampshire College and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Brandeis University. Originally from Brazil, Flavia has lived in the US for 30 years. She also coaches volleyball, is a day-student advisor, and directs one of Andover’s summer travel programs, Brazil PLACES. Her educational philosophy is grounded on intersectional feminism, collaboration, and activism in service of social justice.

Susan Esty is a teacher, school counselor, and administrator with more than 25 years of experience in education. She is the 10th Grade Dean at Phillips Academy, where she has worked since 2016 as the Director of Wellness Education. Susan and her team researched and designed the Academy’s four-year wellness education program, called Empathy, Balance, and Inclusion (EBI), which they continue to develop, deliver, and assess. The EBI program is a combination of social-emotional learning, health education, and cultural competency training. She has also served as the advisor to several student organizations, including Out of the Blue, which in 2019 released a compilation of student stories centered around identity and social justice, which the school uses to teach new students about living and learning in an intentionally diverse community. With Dr. Flavia Vidal, Susan co-founded a student leadership organization called YES+ (Youth Educators for Sex Positivity), which provides all-gender, inclusive peer-to-peer sex education, including their popular “Cupcakes and Condoms” events. At her former school she was Director of Advising & Counseling, a long-time member of their multicultural education steering committee, co-founder of their community education program, and advisor to their multicultural coalition and student of color affinity group. Susan studied English at Amherst College and has a master’s degree in child development from Tufts University and a doctorate in counseling psychology from Boston College. For her doctoral internship she trained in multicultural psychology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.