For the second consecutive year, UTSA has received funding from the Office of Women's Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, enabling Somos Fuertes: Strong Women Making Healthy Choices, to provide female students with a series of educational sessions.

Somos Fuertes uses a multi-tiered approach that includes a session with curriculum aimed specifically at women along with campus-wide events that incorporate both males and females. Topics include sexuality, empowerment issues and sexual health.

"This year we're focusing primarily on the curriculum session which is a six part series designed to help women increase their comfort talking about sexuality, their knowledge and just about a lot of sexual health and relationship issues," Dr. Sara Oswalt, one of the program's co-directors and assistant professor of health and kinesiology, said. "The purpose is really HIV prevention in college women, women here at UTSA."

The sessions were written by Oswalt and Dr. Tammy Wyatt, also a co-director and assistant professor of health and kinesiology, and are facilitated by Planned Parenthood. 

Open enrollment for the sessions was made available to female students at random through their Lonestar email accounts and was available to the first 25 applicants.  In addition, approximately 50 women are on a waiting list for the second session this fall from Oct. 9-Nov. 13. 

A similar course will be offered again in the spring. 

"The program we're looking at offering in the spring is for sororities or other student organizations that, if they were able to get five members to attend all six sessions, then the organization would actually get $200," Oswalt said. 

"I believe there's a real need on campus because of the overwhelming response.  The idea is that the students will attend all six sessions because they build on each other.  It's not just about using condoms or having sex; it comes down to who we are as women and what decisions we make in our relationships."

Although sex education classes are offered at UTSA, this program fills a void. "I think there is a need for information.  If students attend middle and high school in Texas, they have a limited health background.  People want this information.  They're not given it at younger ages.  They want it and we're going to give it to them," Wyatt said.

The sessions are an effort to provide women with small groups and a secure environment in which they will feel comfortable and candid.

"It's sensitive, and I think the fact that they're not co-ed makes them more alluring," Wyatt said.  "They're with other women with the same kinds of concerns which makes them more likely to express themselves, as opposed to a class."

Students are required to sign confidentiality forms for the session to ensure privacy.  "We're talking about people's values and beliefs," Wyatt said. 

Oswalt, who has been involved in women's health on college campuses since 1996, decided to take an active role in educating women at UTSA about sexuality and their rights because it is her passion.

"It is something that I feel very strongly about," she said.  "I'm very committed to women learning more about themselves and what makes them healthy."

Along with the fall curriculum sessions, Somos Fuertes will be hosting two other campus-wide events open to both males and females. 

The first, "Tu Vida, Tu Salud," is a Hispanic heritage month event sponsored by a partner of UTSA called Sexual Health Alcohol and Drug Education for Students (S.H.A.D.E.S), Somos Fuertes and Student Health Services. 

This Sept.19 campus-wide event will run from 6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. in the UC Laurel Room. Open to all students, the event will feature food, prizes, a live band performance by SEXTO SOL, and a $350 giveaway to the organization with the most members in attendance.    

The organization's second fall event will occur on Oct. 15 in support of National Latino Awareness Day.  Participating organizations will be from local community agencies and will feature give-aways and free condoms.  This event will be more educational and will also provide free HIV testing in the Sombrilla from 11 p.m.-3 p.m.

For further information regarding spring events or to coordinate an event with your student organization, contact the Somos Fuertes program coordinator Katie Barna at (210) 458-6704.