On Feb. 6-7, One Love Foundation student ambassadors Darcy ‘23 and Tatum ‘23 traveled to Sacramento for the inaugural One Day for One Love event. Sophia ‘24 and Hunter ’24 were also in attendance.
The One Love Foundation was founded after Yeardley Love, a student at the University of Virginia, was murdered by her former boyfriend in 2010. Her death sent shock waves throughout not only the university, but the nation, shedding light on the lack of awareness surrounding unhealthy relationships and domestic abuse.
To honor Love, the One Love Foundation aims to educate and empower through workshops and accessible curriculums that provide tools and resources needed to see the signs of unhealthy relationships, as well as prevention methods. One Love workshops and curriculums have spread to high schools across the country, educating two million people, including students at Marlborough.
During the One Day for One Love event, students met with politicians to advocate for healthy relationship education to be added to the California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA). While the CHYA currently mandates that all California schools teach comprehensive health and sexual education, education on healthy relationships isn’t included in the required training. The One Love student ambassadors’ goal is to educate representatives on the importance of healthy relationship education with hopes to make it part of the CHYA, with One Love curriculums as a primary resource.
Health Education Head Nicole Beck encouraged students interested in healthy relationship education to apply for the student ambassador program. She has been involved with the facilitation of the One Day for One Love event.
“The hope is that by hearing from student leaders who are involved with One Love, the senators will be able to have that personal background about why it’s important to make healthy relationship education a priority,” Beck said.
After Marlborough’s One Love student ambassadors return from the conference, they will continue to raise awareness about the organization by hosting a lunch event for the entire Marlborough community. The students will have an opportunity to discuss what it was like to work with the One Love Foundation and the importance of advocating for worthwhile causes at the state level.
The students also hope to dedicate a Marlborough sports game to the One Love Foundation to help spread their mission to a wider audience.
The student ambassadors hope that more students will take an interest in being a part of One Love and join their fight to advocate for their efforts.
“Many high schools do not have any sort of relationship education for their students, resulting in many young people unable to recognize the signs of unhealthy behavior,” One Love student ambassador Tatum ‘23 said. “Encouraging students from other schools in our area will really help our goal of implementing this education.”
