Students become certified rape counselors

Several Rowan students recently completed a 40-hour education course called “Services Empowering the Rights of Victims,” and are now on the way to becoming certified to counsel rape victims.

“It was a great learning opportunity, I think everyone needs to know that rape does happen to people. It’s not just a joking matter,” said Elizabeth Palmer, president of the Student Government Association.

The course also taught the students how to educate communities, how to prepare those communities and how to fight future rape situations.

“The course taught us how to work with victims right after the event and set up the victims with everything they need to do and what they need to know,” Palmer said.

Students who pass the course’s final test gain availability to work at hospitals whenever a rape case occurs. After the volunteering hours are completed, each of the students will be officially certified.

“The hours of the course consisted of lectures, presentations, discussions and readings,” said senior English major Kristen Brozina. “On the last day of the course, we did a role play and acted out the part of the advocate.”

According to the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, 25 percent of college students have been sexually assaulted.

“We tend to live in a society where people tend to mind their own business, and in cases like this we cannot do that,” Palmer said.

Each of the members the class took the course for different reasons, but all wanted to serve as campus resources for SERV on Rowan’s campus.

“I took the class because I am interested in women’s issues,” Brozina said. “However, this is unfortunately not just a problem women face. Men and even children are facing it.”

In New Jersey, the majority of phone calls from rape victims are females from the ages of 13 to 22; only about 5 percent of the calls are males. According to The National Center for Victims of Crime, 71 percent of male victims are victimized before the age of 18.

“I wanted to complete this course because I felt there needed to be more male allies in the fight against sexual assault,” said Jon Wood, a senior English major. “Rape and sexual assault are often wrongly considered to be ‘women’s problems’, which is sexist, biased and unfair to believe.

“By taking this course, I wanted to show among other things, that not all men were insensitive pigs and that there could be cooperation between sexes in the fight against sexual assault.”

Over 200,000 men and women over the age of 13 are raped or sexually assaulted each year in the US, according to the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

“I hope to become a resource to my community, in some small way,” Brozina said. “I think that’s the ultimate goal anyone taking this class would say the same thing.”