What's Happening

By ETR | May 22, 2015

Our partners at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (PPLM) will be holding a regional Training of the Educator for the Get Real Middle School curriculum in Denver, Colorado. The two-day training is scheduled for July 31-August 1.

By Joan Singson | May 18, 2015
Program Manager, ETR

Picture yourself standing in front of a room going through the talking points of your training design. You pan the room and notice a few heads bobbing. The bodies they’re attached to twitch as they fight training fatigue. You see glazed-over stares of participants whose minds are somewhere between the training room and a warm bed.

It’s time for an energizer!

By Julie Adams | May 14, 2015
Research Assistant, ETR

A five-mile run has never felt so good! ETR members had the pleasure of participating in the 35th annual Human Race Walkathon and Fun Run this past weekend in Santa Cruz, CA. Together we helped raise funds for the Digital NEST, a non-profit in Watsonville, CA, that seeks to create a safe space for under-represented youth while encouraging them to explore and pursue an entrepreneurial spirit. We are huge supporters of the NEST and everything they do to ensure rural youth in Silicon Valley have access to the technologies needed to thrive in this increasingly digital world.

By John Shields, PhD, MSW | May 11, 2015
Senior Research Associate, ETR

I’ve been thinking quite a lot about my professional partnerships lately. Over the past 14 years, ETR has provided me with opportunities to partner with many community-based organizations and institutions. Now, I can’t honestly say they’ve all been easy. “Stuff” happens. But I can say each one has given me a chance to create fascinating relationships and do meaningful work that has a genuine impact.

By Laura Perkins, MLS | May 7, 2015
Project Editor, ETR

Here we are in the middle of Screen-Free Week, May 4–10, 2015! One week a year, families are encouraged to “power-down” their screens—TVs, computers, tablets, phones, games and other electronic media—and engage with each other and their own imaginations.

This is the first year my family and I decided consciously to participate. We already limit movies to the weekend, and our 8-year-old daughter doesn’t have her own computer or tablet or phone....

Then our daughter got a bad sore throat, cough, low-grade fever, and stayed home from school for two days.

By Pamela Anderson, PhD | May 4, 2015
Senior Research Associate, ETR

I think most of us can remember the first time we had a crush on someone. I do. It was Axl Rose, lead singer for the band Guns N’ Roses. Much to my family’s chagrin, I had his pictures splashed across my bedroom walls. I played his music virtually nonstop for months, while imagining what it would be like to be his girlfriend.

By Shukun Ma | May 1, 2015
Candidate for MBA, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

I believe opportunity and possibility make life exciting, and that education transforms life.

For me, earning my MBA and doing an internship with ETR has helped provide a pathway to my DREAM.

I was literally shaking with thrills when I received the offer to attend the MBA program at Ross School of Business. I saw this as a huge step closer to realizing my career aspiration—using business acumen to empower people. At the same time, it made me look back at my own trajectory. I could not have advanced as I had without resources of various types which had been offered to me and which, I realized, I had been taking for granted.

By Jason Jackson Wallace | May 1, 2015
Candidate for MBA, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

As a little kid, I spent a lot of my time reading and dreaming about space exploration. Often I would read about NASA’s future plans and envision myself as a future astronaut exploring Mars. It seemed like a sure thing to me.

I expected that by the time I’d be old enough to fly, we’d already have a colony on Mars. The idea of exploring and living on another planet would be read about in textbooks rather than science fiction novels.

Disappointingly, my imagination outstripped reality. However, that dream motivated me to continue pursuing science and mathematics throughout my education.

By Cary Klemmer | April 29, 2015
MSW/PhD Student, University of Southern California

Being able to attend a national health summit for transgender folks is one amazing thing in and of itself. Being able to present and share the narratives of transgender youth at that conference is another!

Last April 17-18, I had the great honor of both attending and presenting at the National Transgender Health Summit 2015 in Oakland, California. This event was made possible due to the diligence and hard work of the conference staff, including the UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender Health and ETR, which co-sponsored the event.

By Max Dixon | April 28, 2015
Candidate for MBA and MA in Education Leadership & Policy, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

Working with ETR these past few weeks has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my first year at the University of Michigan. My classmates and I had the opportunity to fly out to California and visit both the Scotts Valley and Oakland ETR offices, and we immersed ourselves in ETR’s extensive offerings.

ETR’s mission of reducing risk and improving the lives of young people manifests itself in many ways, and each employee has a strong passion for the work. 

By Fulton Breen | April 27, 2015
Candidate for MBA and MA in Educational Leadership & Policy, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

The president of my university, Mark Schlissel, summarized his commitment to social justice and equitable youth development with a simple but powerful observation: Talent is ubiquitous, but opportunity is not.

So what are we to do with this gap between abilities and access?

This question drew me to the interesting work being done at ETR. It’s also what brought me to graduate school to study the intersections of business and education.

By Pamela Anderson, PhD | April 23, 2015
Senior Research Associate, ETR

Hi everyone! My colleagues and I are excited about the upcoming conference YTH Live: Igniting Youth Tech Health Innovation. It’s taking place this Sunday through Tuesday (April 26–28) at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco, and we’ve got some thought-provoking presentations on the schedule.

Ever wondered who youth are texting and what they are saying?

By Tracy Wright, MAED, & Annika Shore, MPH | April 20, 2015
Project Director, ETR, & Professional Development Consultant, ETR

One of the essential hallmarks of a successful training is participant engagement through planned activities. Trainers know how to do this well in in-person trainings. But, for many of us, designing and delivering activities in the virtual environment can feel less certain—even intimidating.

Here are 5 guiding questions that will help you design successful virtual training activities.

By Annika Shore, MPH | April 16, 2015
Professional Development Consultant, ETR

This upbeat activity has some of the best elements for any training—movement, music and conversation. It engages brains, energizes participants and helps them personalize the learning.

By Rebekah Saul Butler, MBA, MPH | April 13, 2015
Co-Executive Director/The Grove Foundation

My business school marketing professor once said, “The airlines need to think more like a taxi.” Get people where they need to go when they want to go, and make it easy to get there.

As a frequent business traveler, I’ve often thought of those words while stranded in an airport or waiting for everyone in front of me to get their bags down and exit the aircraft. Air travel feels impersonal—like it’s designed to be convenient for the airlines, not the flier. And the industry hasn’t made much progress in 15 years.

I can’t say I’m any more enamored with the taxi industry. I’ve recently started using a ridesharing app and can understand perfectly why the sector is growing exponentially. And what’s this got to do with sexuality education?

I’d like to see sexuality education teacher training become more like a modern ridesharing business: technology based, customer centric and widely accessible.

By John Henry Ledwith | April 9, 2015
National Sales Manager, ETR

I never cease to be amazed at the skill and art of fine teaching. Here’s a story I heard last week from a high school teacher I know.

Students were coming into her classroom at the beginning of the period. Two young men started talking about a fight that occurred the night before between a couple of their peers. They took different sides on the fight.

Their talk was assertive, then challenging, then trash. Racial epithets were tossed back and forth. Other students started joining in and the entire situation was escalating.

By Robin Mills, MA | April 6, 2015
Sexual Health Education Coordinator, U.C. Berkeley University Health Services Tang Center

While the term “affirmative consent” is fairly new, the concept most certainly is not.

Back in 2005, I was working at Planned Parenthood. I went to a health fair where a group called Coalition for Positive Sexuality was distributing purple mini-booklets called “Just Say Yes.” I thought, “Wow. That’s awesome. What a super positive way of thinking. I like it.”

I took a quick peek inside the booklet (since I was supposed to be working) and was hooked immediately. There it was, printed in black and white for all the world to read: messaging to young adults encouraging them to say “yes” to the sex they want, and “no” to the sex they don’t want! It was amazing!

By Marcia Quackenbush, MS, MFT, MCHES | April 2, 2015
Senior Editor, ETR

What inspires you in your work? I often ask this about our tribe—this group of people making the front-line effort in the world of health education and promotion.

I think most of us love working for a mission. And I also think that for most people, the work sometimes gets tedious or challenging.

That’s why I totally LOVE this video by ETR’s Digital Solutions Manager, Kieren Jameson.