By Annie Steinfelt ‘24, staff writer
An LVC student is pursuing her passion for sexual assault awareness and prevention as she interns at the Sexual Assault Resource and Counseling Center (SARCC) in Lebanon.
After being introduced to SARCC during freshman orientation at LVC, junior English and social justice & civic engagement double major, Julia Wecker, began her journey with the organization in the fall of 2020, her sophomore year. She started training with Kaity Nordhoff, a prevention and outreach specialist at SARCC Lebanon, to volunteer as a prevention educator, and in April of the following year, she was offered a yearlong internship with the organization.
“April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, so myself and a couple of other people were planning an event and I invited Kaity Nordhoff to come and offer potential resources,” Wecker said. “She offered me the internship then and there at the event, which was cool.”
She began training to become a certified sexual assault counselor in June and now works three afternoons a week to perform tasks such as accompanying people for intakes at the child advocacy center in Lebanon, working with primary prevention in the office, helping with intakes for when people first come to SARCC by assessing their needs to determine which services to provide and covering the sexual assault hotline during daytime hours.
She also provides prevention education at schools and feels very fortunate to be able to teach lessons to children and young adults about body safety and boundaries that help mitigate child sexual abuse and empower individuals to ask for help if they experience sexual assault.
“I know how difficult it is to be in that position and how difficult the process of healing from something like that can be,” Wecker said. “Getting to be the person who can intervene and help somebody through that time or potentially prevent somebody from having to go through that trauma, and even just being able to tell somebody, ‘I believe you, your feelings are valid,’ can honestly be life-changing. I feel really lucky that I get to be that person for people because I think everyone deserves that.”
Working with SARCC has allowed her to take on various roles and determine where she fits best. She feels that she has found her niche, as counseling comes naturally to her, so in the future, she hopes to work for a rape crisis center similar to SARCC while continuing to do what she does now. She also mentioned the possibility of working on the state level for an organization like the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR).
She recognizes that the work she does for SARCC may seem daunting to some, but she encourages anyone who is interested in sexual assault counseling and prevention to volunteer.
“Just being a person who wants to listen and help and be compassionate is the most important thing, and the rest will follow,” Wecker said. “If you have a particular cause that you’re really passionate about or you realize you have a knack for, then go for it, because you can do a lot of good just by being somebody who cares about people, and that’s really valuable.”
If you are interested in training or volunteering at SARCC, contact Kaity Nordhoff at knordhoff@sarcclebanon.org, or for more information, contact Jen Liedtka at liedtka@lvc.edu.