Richmond is ranked the second city with the highest rate of HIV and AIDS cases among African Americans.

Kevin Holt, a guest speaker at the HIV/AIDS awareness program, said that Miami, Atlanta, and Chicago are a few of the larger cities in the United States., yet Richmond still out number them in the number of AIDS cases.

“In 2006, blacks in Virginia accounted for 63 percent of reported HIV cases,” says Holt.

Feb.7, 2007 marked the seventh year of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. VCU’s Office of Multicultural Student Affairs and the Student Government Association held a forum the same day to increase awareness among African Americans about HIV/AIDS and its impact on the African American community.

The main purpose of NBHAAD is to encourage African Americans to get tested, get educated, get involved and get treated.

Three years ago while in the hospital, Holt found out that he was HIV positive. It scared him, but Holt refuses to let the disease take control of his life.
“I’m a product of life,” he says. “I’m living, not dying.”

Holt’s reason for speaking to students about HIV and AIDS is to educate students on ways they can prevent catching the disease.

“If you don’t have the education, those people are not going to say, well OK, I think I need to get tested,” says Holt.

Holt is the director of STOP; Students Tolerance Outreach Prevention. This program not only addresses HIV/AIDS, but issues about domestic violence and drug abuse.

During this event, Holt asked students to get into groups and come up with some reasons why people do not get tested for HIV and AIDS. The main reason is because many of them are scared of the results and what others may think of them.

Students that attended this program enjoyed themselves and learned something from their experience.

“I’m definitely going to get tested again because I didn’t know how often you had to get tested,” says Meron Berhanu. “I thought that once you did it, then you didn’t have to do it for a long time. But obviously you do.”

Tatiana Paisley, a senior at VCU, says, “I didn’t know that a lot more African Americans, women especially, was carrying this disease…people are being naïve and scared about it and they need to go out and get tested.”

Photo Courtesy of www. blackaidsday.org (Web Hosting/Designed: Healthy Black Communities, Inc & mojaevans PPS, LLC)

Lauren Page Profile

Attending school in Cornwall, England was a life changing experience for Lauren Page. Living there on her own helped her mature.

While living in England, the terrorist attacks and 9/11 took place. Page was scared because her family lived near Washington, D.C. and she did not know if they were ok. This was a wake-up call for Page. She realized how much she needed them and began to appreciate her family more.

Page, a 21-year-old senior at Virginia Commonwealth University, was born in San Diego, Calif. on Aug. 25, 1985. Her father was in the marines until he returned and moved his family to Alexandria, Va.

In high school, Page was not the best student or daughter she could have been, she says. She did not get along with her parents at all.

“I thought I was grown and wanted to do whatever I wanted,” says Page.

Page wanted to leave home and attend boarding school. She wanted to experience something new and be independent. Her parents agreed but said she had to go to school in another country so that she can experience a different culture. They did not want her to leave because she didn’t want to be at home anymore.

Page and her parents researched different schools online to see which schools seemed appropriate. She applied to four schools and was accepted into Truro High School and Bedstone College.

Page attended Truro High School for Girls in Cornwall, England. It was her first time attending an all-girl school, but she enjoyed herself despite the different lifestyle.

“There were smaller towns, all stores were closed on Sunday, and kids were able to smoke and drink at an earlier age,” says Page. “The children could also travel on the buses on their own because there was less crime and guns are illegal.”

Page believes that moving from home helped her calm down and grow up. At home, she never did her work and her grades suffered because of it. Her grades improved at Truro and she realized that all the partying she was doing at home was no longer important to her.

Before she left home, Page’s mother told her that she could never get into college because of her grades. After she saw her improvement, she encouraged her to apply to college. She applied to VCU and was accepted.

Now that she is at VCU, Page’s parents tend to support her more than they did before; which encourages her to focus more in school. She came to VCU for the art program, but soon found out that her passion is writing. To be in the art program, Page realized that she had to be dedicated and make art her life. She often wrote about how much she disliked art.

Page is majoring in journalism because she likes to write. She hopes to get a job writing for Vanity Fair or Vogue. Page’s best friend, Brittany Darden, thinks that Page is a wonderful writer.

“Lauren is always writing about something,” says Darden. “I think she should write for a newspaper or a magazine.”