THE BIG STORY

Smart Choices Will Save The Lives of Your Friends

Almost every night she speaks, ERICA UPSHAW hears a story that makes her hair stand on end. Stories about near death experiences after parties, sexual assaults, violent physical overdoses involving hospital visits.

“So often, these horror stories are coming from students who look totally smart, together, and capable of making better choices,” Erica said. “In most cases, the entire situation hinged on a friend making a smart choice that saved their lives.”

Erica’s mission is to empower friends to act when they see a dangerous incident or pattern of irresponsible substance abuse in their friends. It was inspired by the death of her own brother who was two years ahead of her at Ohio State. Joey and Erica, both high achieving students academically, used the weekends to party hard. Joey died from an incident in which he mixed alcohol and party drugs.

“I want students to know that I am just like many of them, have faced the same decisions, and that I didn’t always make the right ones,” she said. “There is a way to have fun while still being responsible, and students are getting that more and more.”
“No one wants to see terrible things happen to their friends, and I’m trying to tap into that by teaching them how to party smart, and how to identify and talk to a friend who has a problem.”

Erica is traveling nationwide, encouraging campuses to adopt “Good Samaritan Policies” that protect students from getting in trouble when they call 911 to help a friend in crisis.

“Students genuinely want to help, but sometimes fail to act because they worry about getting into trouble. By the time they realize a life is at stake, it might be too late. We have to attack that gap between recognizing a bad situation and recognizing a life-threatening one.”

Erica has started inviting students to post stories and pictures on her website keepfriendshipalive.com.  Again, it’s a way to make the issue of “intervention as friendship” more real.  She hopes it will encourage other students to confront norms of excess consumption in their peer groups.

Consider this: have you heard of doing 21 shots on your 21st birthday?  Take a look at this graph, or refer to Erica’s video.  Did you know it is that easy to die from a so-called “tradition”? Such traditions are exactly what Erica hopes to combat and eradicate on college campuses, with the help of students who want to change the climate of alcohol and substance abuse. Visit Erica’s website and review the steps to adopt this letter campaign for your school or organization. It’s a great resource for explaining the dangers of the 21-shot ritual.

For more information about Erica and her keynote Keep Friendship Alive, visit campuspeak.com/upshaw,
or visit keepfriendshipalive.com.