Episode 025: Fighting Period Poverty at Penn State with Jess Straight & Emma Cihanowyz

The Days for Girls Podcast

Meet Jess Straight and Emma Cihanowyz: college students, menstrual equity champions and leaders of the Days for Girls Club at Penn State University – serving as president/founder (Jess) VP of Advocacy/Administrator (Emma).

During the pandemic, DfG Penn State pivoted from sewing kits to running period product drives and polling hundreds of students about the state of menstrual equity on campus. Fueled by their research findings, the club is now working with student government to make menstrual products accessible and free for all menstruators at Penn State.

In this inspiring interview, Jess and Emma walk us through their efforts to fight menstrual injustice and stigma on campus, the challenges faced by menstruators at Penn State, and what they learned from distributing 1,000 menstrual cups to students in last fall’s Campus Cup event.

Highlights

• What inspired Jess and Emma to get involved with Days for Girls
• How the Days for Girls Penn State Club (DfG PSU) has transitioned from a “sewing club” to a true “period club”
• Key findings from Penn State Club’s college-wide menstrual equity survey, which revealed that 2500+ students have skipped class or work due to lack of period products
• Prevailing menstrual health issues on campus, including lack of knowledge about free product resources and lack of disposal facilities (particularly in gender neutral bathrooms)
• Their experience partnering with the student body government to address period poverty
• All about Campus Cup, an event where DfG PSU distributed almost 1,000 Organic Cup menstrual cups on campus
• Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about menstrual cups and why they’re such a great, sustainable solution
• The importance of open dialogue about menstruation
• What’s next for Jess and Emma in their college careers

Connect

Instagram: @daysforgirlsPSU | @jess.strait | @emma.cihanowyz

LinkedIn: Jess Strait | Emma Cihanowyz

Bio

Emma Cihanowyz is a current undergraduate student at Pennsylvania State University in the Schreyer Honors College, studying International Politics, Spanish, and French with a Women and Gender Studies minor. She is the first Vice President of Advocacy for Days for Girls at Penn State and has been a part of the organization for two years, serving on both the operations team and as administrator. Her plans after graduating are to pursue a career in law.

Jess Strait is the president and a founding member of the Days for Girls Club at Penn State University. During university remote learning, Days for Girls PSU pivoted from sewing kits to socially-distanced activities like collecting period products in competition with a rival university and including community experts in the conversation around period poverty. By surveying hundreds of students on their menstrual health needs, the club is now advocating with student government to make free menstrual products accessible on campus. During fall of 2020, Jess led a project to provide almost 1000 menstrual cups to Penn State students through the CampusCup program. She is now preparing to write her thesis on how programs like Campus Cup help fight period stigma on college campuses.

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