The young men of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and other University students sat in shock as Arnold “A.J.” Johnson, Baton Rouge Aids Society program director, spoke about sexually transmitted diseases.
At the beginning of Project Alpha, the students participated in a matching activity called “How much do you know about STDs, and do you know what they look like?” in which the students had to match pictures of STD symptoms with the correct STD name.
Johnson spoke about the majority of the STDs and especially emphasized the most common ones in the Baton Rouge area: gonorrhea, syphilis and AIDS.
“I am here to inform you about your choices, decisions, consequences and responsibility because they are vital to your heath and well-being,” Johnson said to the audience.
The program had most of the listeners, especially the college students, thinking about life and the decisions they have made.
“This was a really nice but very educational and informative form. You think you know everything, then you find out something new every time,” said Dwight Barnes, a pre-med senior.
Project Alpha is a national service program sponsored by the March for Dimes Foundation and the national chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.
Project Alpha’s purpose is to teach young men the pitfalls of adolescent pregnancy and fatherhood. The program is intended to address young men between the ages of 13 and 17, but the fraternity decided to incorporate young men between the ages 18 and 24 because they also need to be knowledgeable about such pitfalls.
The program’s intent was for these young men to learn responsibility, respect and learn from mentors the importance of males in a relationship.
“Project Alpha gives a chance for high school and college students to learn the importance of abstinence and learn about the different diseases that result from having unprotected sex,” said Nathaniel Bourda, an accounting junior.