Lion Around gets serious talking about Month of Action

Lion Around dropped by the Chapel of St. Matthew this week to talk about a more serious subject – The Month of Action. Chosen for a specific reason, the Chapel of St. Matthew houses the office of the campus pastor, who is a confidential source for students to go to when they need to talk about anything.

Delving into the nitty gritty, The Month of Action is month-long campaign funded by a grant from the Michigan State Police to help raise awareness about sexual assault and gender and body positivity. The events associated with the grant are two documentary screenings, a talk with guest speaker Byron Hurt and other various activities used to increase student’s knowledge of the focus topics.

This is the second year that FinnU has received a grant from the Michigan State Police. Last year the grant money focused primarily on sexual assault awareness. The Servant Leadership House, where Freeman and Geliche live, assisted with the grant activities by choosing the same topic for their social justice topic of the year. To be more informed on the topic, Freeman and Geliche both read books prior to coming back to campus and were asked to watch several films on the topic. Freeman and Geliche both stated that from what they watched and read the information was informative and occasionally a lot to take in at times.

With a topic hitting close to home, Freeman stated that after everything she learned last year, she tries to be more noticeable of her environment. Geliche mentioned that the topic was more concerning, especially with the dynamic shift in campus within the last few years, going from a predominantly female campus to a campus that had a larger percentage of male students. The co-hosts were surprised, after attending several events last year, to learn how the male population’s knowledge of the subject was relatively sparse, because it was a topic they never thought about. Being able to help educate and raise the thoughts of “oh this is what women go through” was one of the best parts about last year’s topic, thought Freeman.

Freeman and Geliche hope that through all the events and information provided that students will start to consider and be more mindful about the topics that are being discussed. With the Month of Action winding down, don’t miss out on any of the events. To see what events are taking place, go to finlandia.edu/calendar.