Avon High Grad Uses Award to Empower Peers Heading to College

Avon High School graduate Lauren Callahan won a LEO award from the local Lion's Club as a middle school student. She put the money away, promising to use it to make a difference by the time she graduated high school.

Well, graduation came and so, too, came an idea for how to use the money for good. 

As she and her friends turned their thoughts toward college, Callahan realized that not all universities offer self-defense training as part of their orientation. She had learned about violence toward women in a humanities class and felt that personal safety training was a gift she could share with her classmates, according to a release. 

Callahan contacted Ellen van Olden of Empower the Girls We Love, which provides personal safety training for girls and women, about running a class.

“I knew when I was on the phone with Lauren that she was going to make a difference in her community, and I was going to do whatever I could to help her to do that” van Olden said in the release.

One in four college women will be a victim of sexual assault sometime during her academic career and women ages 16 to 24 experience rape at rates four times higher than the assault rate of all women, van Olden said, citing Department of Justice research. 

In June, Callahan and van Olden arranged for 45 senior girls to attend an Empower the Girls We Love; Personal Safety Training 101 presentation.

One graduating senior, Nicole Rodier said that the single most important thing she learned is to “always be aware; don’t be naïve and assume it won’t happen to you.” 

Michael Kaselouskas, Assistant Chief of Public Safety at the University of Hartford will be instructing two sessions of the class in August that will be open to all high school and college-age girls.

The sessions will be Friday, Aug. 16 from 4 to 7 p.m. and Saturday, Aug. 17 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The fee is $95 per person or $75 per person when two or more register.

The program includes instruction on building awareness, identifying potentially dangerous situations, and trusting instincts. It also teaches physical skills for self-defense.

For more information and to register visit http://www.samprograms.com/schedule_cal.php. or contact Ellen van Olden at 954-255-6300 or email ellen@samprograms.com.