The National Council of Jewish Women L.A. gave a presentation to tenth and twelfth graders during periods one through three on March 23 about sexual violence, stating how one in four women will be sexually assaulted at least once in their lifetime.

“Overall, I want students to understand that sexual assault is a cultural and systemic problem and not a one time incident,” student presenter Hannah Ji said.   

The main purpose for the Talk Project is to educate and make teens aware of the dangers of sexual violence and sexual assault on and off of campus. All four presenters, Ji, Alexa Hirsch, Vida Keyvanfar and Madeline Mckay are all a part of this non-profit organization and visit different schools throughout the year.

The talk includes facts and statistics on the types of sexual assault, what they are and how you can prevent this from happening to you or someone else. A video about  assault happening on a college campus was shown and informed students that sexual violence is common on many college campuses. Large universities had large amounts of sexual assault cases but very few perpetrators were ever disciplined, such as Stanford that had 259 people report sexual violence and only three expulsions. The student presenters also did an interactive activity where they had students answer questions based off of the facts that were presented in a powerpoint.

“I’m here to just spread awareness and teach students about sexual violence and assault and how they can make a change by following us on instagram and reaching out to us through e-mail,” Keyvanfar said.

Students who are interested in joining or researching more about the Talk Project can follow them @TheTalkProject on their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You can also visit their website at www.changethetalk.org for more information. The Talk is a peer to peer group that holds meetings twice a month, conducts rallies and works on many projects together. Coordinator Ashley Cooper helps put together events and meetings for the group. For questions or concerns you can contact her directly at [email protected].

“I thought it was nice because some women don’t really open up and it’s hard to move on from a traumatic experience,” sophomore Leticia Gabino said. “It was very brave of those women to come out and share.”