{"id":23078,"date":"2014-12-15T10:06:20","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T15:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=23078"},"modified":"2014-12-15T10:06:20","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T15:06:20","slug":"why-miami-dade-high-school-students-are-teaching-their-classmates-about-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/12\/15\/why-miami-dade-high-school-students-are-teaching-their-classmates-about-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Miami-Dade High School Students Are Teaching Their Classmates About Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Diamante<\/a>

John O'Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Diamante Sharpe leads an practice session for student health educators in the HIP program.<\/p><\/div>\n

Abuse. Drugs. Mental health issues.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough enough for anyone to talk about those problems. It can be even harder for teens facing them for the first time.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the Health Information Project (HIP)<\/a>\u00a0trains high school juniors and seniors to lead freshmen through a year-long health education program. The program is in 37 Miami-Dade public high schools, plus one private school<\/a>. \u00a0It has trained more than 1,000 juniors and seniors on how to teach and talk to younger schoolmates about health issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve realized over the years is that peers can be very persuasive in a positive way and they can influence those that look like them,\u201d said Risa Berrin, who started the program.<\/p>\n

The school day is over at North Miami Beach High School. Most students have headed for the doors.\u00a0But Diamante Sharpe and Erica Poitevien and about a dozen classmates are working on their lesson plans.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cSo welcome back to HIP. My name is Diamante,\u201d Sharpe tells the group. \u201cAnd today is our fourth session \u2013 mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

They ask those gathered to clear their desks, pay attention and offer constructive criticism to classmates to help them teach the material better.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the year, students teach eight lessons and lead discussions.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

HIP starts off with relationships before moving into mental and reproductive health, and exercise and obesity. The year finishes with nutrition.<\/p>\n

For North Miami Beach High School students, HIP is the only health education they get \u2013 the school eliminated its health class.<\/p>\n

\"HIP<\/a>

John O'Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

HIP founder Risa Berrin says the program always provides food during after school training sessions because some students don't get regular meals at home.<\/p><\/div>\n

The program has a few key ground rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not medical professionals,”\u00a0Poitevien reminds the HIP instructors.\u00a0“Therefore we can not give out medical advice. If you have questions go to the HIP website.\u201d<\/p>\n

For medical advice, they point classmates to doctors, the health clinics at many school campuses or other professionals able to give more informed advice. They let students know if they might be eligible for a government-subsidized health insurance plan, like Obamacare<\/a> or Florida KidCare<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s said in the classroom usually stays in the classroom \u2013 unless students might be in danger.<\/p>\n

Berrin says students give out facts, not advice \u2013 and they take the lessons home with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese students are making better health decisions,\u201d she says, \u201cnot only for themselves, but they\u2019re making better decisions on behalf of their family members, their friends. They\u2019re disseminating this information back at home and in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Programs like HIP are important, says Deb Hauser, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington D.C.-based health advocacy group<\/a>, primarily focused on reproductive education, because health education is a lower priority for many schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause they don\u2019t test in health, you don\u2019t see a heavy emphasis on this subject matter,\u201d Hauser says. \u201cAnd yet they can be very, very key to young people\u2019s success, both academically and as they move through their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hauser says health education should start in elementary school — not lessons about sex and drugs, but making friends and taking care of yourself.<\/p>\n

HIP started with 2 Miami high schools. Now that it\u2019s in every public high school in Miami-Dade County, the plan now is to hire more professionals to help the students do this kind of work.<\/p>\n

Hauser says there\u2019s not a lot of of research showing that teenagers learn more from their peers. But they don\u2019t seem to learn less either.<\/p>\n

And teens who lead health programs like HIP seem to get as much or more out of it as those they coach.<\/p>\n

\"These<\/a>

John O'Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

These posters advertise the program, but also offer health tips to students who might not have had the HIP classes.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThey see themselves as leaders,\u201d Hauser says. \u201cThe change that comes as being part of a peer education program has a very strong impact, not only on their sense of themselves but then on their behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Miami Beach junior Katerina Perdomo is a HIP student health educator. She says she\u2019s much more comfortable leading lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not really that shy but I know when I get really nervous when speaking in front of a crowd,\u201d Perdomo says. \u201cAnd now, it\u2019s like a piece of cake. I can go up there and I can tell them, \u2018Hey, this is what\u2019s up. And this is what you should do,\u2019 and it\u2019s really easy for me now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior Natalie Coto says she was uncomfortable talking about the subjects included in the HIP lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t used to talking about things like sex and drugs and stuff that was going on. Especially since I was younger, so, like, we didn\u2019t really talk about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coto thinks she\u2019s found the courage \u2013 and wisdom \u2013 to step in if a classmate needs support.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though people are going through things,\u201d she says, \u201cyou can always talk to them about it. You might not be able to do the most heroic thing for their lives, but you can still help them get through it. That\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abuse. Drugs. Mental health issues. It\u2019s tough enough for anyone to talk about those problems. It can be even harder for teens facing them for the first time. That\u2019s why the Health Information Project (HIP)\u00a0trains high school juniors and seniors to lead freshmen through a year-long health education program. The program is in 37 Miami-Dade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":23081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1148,979],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23078"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23085,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23078\/revisions\/23085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}