my story
How a filmmaker became a sex educator
I’m a sexuality educator and violence prevention advocate with a
background in journalism and documentary filmmaking focused on
gender and sexual violence. I bring a unique perspective and deep,
personal understanding of the issues that inform effective sexual
education and empowerment.
My senior project at Santa Clara University was a documentary
exposing sexual assault on campus, "The Morning After". I graduated in
2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Italian Studies.
After graduating, I moved to Rome, Italy where I worked as an ESL teacher in a school and at the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center for one year.
Next, I moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where I worked in a school and Casa Abba, a refuge center for Central American migrants making the dangerous journey north. During this time, I appeared in and had a very small role in the production of a powerful documentary exposing the voices behind the headlines "The Migrant Crisis: Where Can We Live in Peace?"
Due to the 2020 Covid-19 shutdowns, I returned to Chicago to continue teaching ESL to refugees with Exodus World Service and get my Master of Science in Journalism from the Northwestern Medill School of Journalism. I graduated in 2021 with a 3.95 GPA.
My master's project is a documentary about food insecurity on the West Side of Chicago. "Feed 'Em All" won the Virginia Dares Cinematic Award for Decolonizing and Re-indigenizing Media and was an official selection in the Oregon Documentary Film Festival, the Female Feedback Film Festival, and Austin Eats.
After writing an article titled "Comprehensive Sexuality Education Program Called ‘Life-Saving’ by Parents," a profound calling was ignited within me, compelling me to pursue certification in the 150-hour sexuality educator program at Modern Sex Therapy Institutes, where I am now in the final stages of AASECT supervision.
Since 2022, I have passionately facilitated comprehensive sexuality education for 4th to 6th graders at Oak Park Our Whole Lives. I led my Building Consent Culture workshop across Chicago Public Schools, libraries, and extracurricular groups this past year, reaching over 300 students.
This journey has also empowered me to facilitate peer support groups for women who are survivors of sexual abuse, and teens and nonbinary youth where we focus on empowerment through healthy relationship skills, body positivity, and honest conversations about substance use and sexuality.
I exposed sexual abuse at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois. Through my Youtube videos and community organizing, I got a sexual predator fired from the school.
Throughout the impressive list of achievements mentioned above, I was a victim of sexual violence. I battled addiction, eating disorders, and PTSD as a result of abuse starting in childhood and continuing into adulthood. Raised in the Catholic school system, I did not understand consent or what constitutes sexual abuse. I found myself trapped in an abusive cycle for many years.
I didn't have the words to communicate the abuse. I had no understanding of my bodily autonomy or legal rights. I survived a suicide attempt at age 14 because I could not articulate my experiences and was bound by pervasive religious sexual shame.
In 2021, I had a professional partnership with Injustice Watch that required me to read criminal complaints against personnel in Chicago Public Schools. This was the first time I was confronted with the laws around the sexual misconduct of minors in schools, and I related to the stories of abuse of minors behind redacted names on the court documents. After a painful year of accepting what had been happening to me, I sought both legal justice and professional help, and I'm proud to say I have been in recovery and 100% sober for over three years. As I work on healing myself, I'm also healing my community.
I share these very personal details because my story is not uncommon, and I wholeheartedly believe that comprehensive sexuality education with a focus on consent is life-saving. I believe it is sexual violence prevention, suicide prevention, eating disorder prevention, domestic violence prevention, and addiction prevention. We have the opportunity to equip the next generation with life-saving tools, and we can do it in a fun and empowering way!
