Teens Pave Student's Path to Success
Inspiring teens to reach their potential—that’s the goal of Northridge Hospital’s Promoting Abstinence for Teen Health (PATH) PLUS program. As the only program of its kind in the San Fernando Valley, PATH emphasizes a positive approach to sexual abstinence, including staying in school, acquiring career-readiness skills, and achieving career, work, and family goals.
“The PATH PLUS program recruits and hires local high school students as peer educators who receive 90 hours of training,” explains PATH Program Coordinator Martha Zuniga, MPH. “They learn teaching techniques, abstinence education, team building activities, role-playing interactions, and nutrition.” The training sessions prepare high school students to lead 12-week after-school PATH PLUS workshops during the spring and fall semesters in six Los Angeles Unified School District middle schools.
“The middle school students are sometimes timid at first, but as the course progresses, they open up and enjoy giving their input,” says 17-year-old Karen Rodas who after graduating from the program last year was promoted to a PATH Health Educator. She now trains peer educators while also attending California State University, Northridge. “It’s such a great experience,” she adds. “PATH has given me a great opportunity to be involved in something that I really believe in.”
