My name is Angel DeLuca, I’m in ninth grade, and I just joined Evolvement. I joined Evolvement because I wanted to put it on college applications. It wasn’t too hard to do because I just had to fill out an application and the parent form. I learned about the program when the Evolvement staff came into my health class and did a presentation about it. Their presentation showed me how good this could be for developing skills that will look good on my future resumes. I have some friends who joined Evolvement with me, which has made the work even better because now we can advocate together.
The training was on site at my school, Eldorado High School, this made it very easy to attend. It was fun because we got to do activities, like a “Would you Rather Questions” and an activity where we got up to pick up a card and walked back with the injury the card showed to teach us about health equity. We got water, a notebook, and a little packet with Evolvement branded things. They also got us Subway and chips for lunch. The people were really nice, and it really was a lot of fun. At the end of the training, we could answer questions about Evolvement and get prizes. I won a $25 Visa gift card because they spun a wheel at the end for the rest of the prizes, and I won the gift card. If you attend training you should expect to get up and move around during the training, especially during lunch when we had to go get people to fill out the pledge forms. Returning Evolvement students should go to the training again because they could meet the new Evolvement members, and they may win prizes while they’re there. It was a very fun experience, and I had a great time.
I learned all of the tactics that tobacco companies use to get people, especially younger people, to buy and use their products. I learned about how many people have used these products and all the different flavors that there are. I had always heard that nicotine and tobacco were really harmful but I didn’t really know why before this training. This training really opened my eyes to seeing how impacted our communities are by the tobacco companies and why this work is so important.
