About Me
My name is Alexis Grimshaw and I am currently a junior at the University of Michigan. I am studying business with a focus in marketing as well as writing.
As a college student, I am currently experiencing life in what I can only describe as an "in-between" state. I am half adult, half kid; I am making my own decisions and opinions, but my parents still send me dinners and call me every week. I am becoming independent, but with the comfort of knowing I don't have to be yet. I am learning new things every day, and realizing how naive I have been. Through this project, I have learned a lot about myself as both a writer and person. Mainly that I still have a lot of growing up and learning ahead of me.
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That's what I love about this weird "in-between" time: I can try new things
and learn how to fail and how to succeed without regrets. I have the capability to do and figure out anything I want without restrictions. I can do good, or bad, or nothing in between. And ultimately, that is how this project came about.
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It all started with a poem I wrote during my first writing course as a college student. It could be about anything and it could mean anything, and so I chose to write about a young woman coping with her sexual assault. Although I had no first-hand experience, I had some personal experience with the aftermath of sexual assault, and I felt it was an important and powerful topic to discuss. After the initial poem, I began to become more interested in the topic, and wanted to discuss it with friends and peers. But I soon realized that sexual violence was taboo and made others, particularly men, very uncomfortable. This worried me, because if I couldn't discuss the mere idea of sexual violence, how would survivors be able to feel comfortable talking about their experiences?
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Thinking about the topics of sexual assault and sexual violence, it became clear that many people did not know exactly what they were, let alone how to discuss them. Since they are such sensitive topics, they need to be discussed in such a manner as to not disrespect the victims. This presentation will be an overview of what sexual assault is, as well as other relative terms, and its effects on our society. I encourage you to create your own discussion questions throughout, and remember that there is so much more to be discussed.
Click the arrow to begin.