Illustration by Christine Hipp

In Santa Cruz County there are currently 424 persons living with HIV/AIDS. Those 424 community members are among nearly 200,000 California residents who battle the HIV/AIDS virus, which gained widespread attention in the early 1980s. Since then, nearly 90,000 Californians have lost that battle to a disease that is not only ongoing, but without a cure.

In honor of the 24th annual World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, supporters will gather to commemorate those who currently suffer from or have died from the HIV/AIDS virus. City on a Hill Press urges readers to join the global effort to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, and to also wear red ribbons in solidarity with those affected by the virus.

While steps have been taken to educate the public on the spread of HIV/AIDS and its history, treatment for the virus relies strictly on state-funded programs. Decades later, the number of those infected continue to grow as funding dwindles.

As World AIDS Day approaches, we cannot forget that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is not only longstanding, but facing statewide budget cuts to HIV/AIDS resources and support. California also ranks second nationally in cumulative AIDS cases by state, surpassed only by New York.

Nationwide, proposed cuts to HIV/AIDS funding has ignited widespread protest, with the latest incident involving demonstrators removing their clothing in current Speaker of the House John Boehner’s office to reveal body painting with the phrase “ AIDS cuts kill.”

In California, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut $85 million of AIDS funding in 2009 due to the California budget crisis. Since then, funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) has experienced several, devastating cuts to HIV/AIDS programs in addition to corresponding matching federal dollars.

Today, Gov. Jerry Brown’s November budget proposal for the 2012–13 fiscal year stands to reduce total funding for ADAP from $477 million to $395 million, a cut of $82 million. Without adequate funding, significant support programs and research efforts toward ending AIDS will be decimated.

The impact of this slash and burn approach toward funding cuts will not only drive up the cost of medications for those suffering from HIV/AIDS but run the risk of limiting access to vital information and testing agencies across the state.

We do not live in a post-HIV/AIDS society, and while California’s budget crisis is indeed grave, the state cannot afford to push the HIV/AIDS pandemic onto the backburner.

Since 1985, programs like the Santa Cruz AIDS Project (SCAP) have provided residents of Santa Cruz County with educational support programs aimed toward harm reduction. SCAP offers services including case management, benefits advocacy, financial and nutritional assistance, transitional housing and wellness events in addition to free HIV/AIDS testing.

However, cuts to state funding have threatened the availability of resources for victims of HIV/AIDS in localities across the state.

With World AIDS day soon approaching, City on a Hill Press urges readers to not only stand in solidarity with those who suffer from the HIV/AIDS virus but to join the fight to keep HIV/AIDS programs not only alive, but moving forward toward a cure.

To get involved with World AIDS day in Santa Cruz, visit: www.scapsite.org

Angie Wootton, volunteer coordinator at the Santa Cruz AIDS Project, pins the universal red AIDS ribbon to her shirt. The Santa Cruz AIDS Project will commemorate World AIDS Day Thursday, alongside AIDS awareness groups from around the world. Photo by Prescott Watson.

It is estimated that globally 34 million people are currently living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Thursday, Dec. 1 marks the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day, a day to commemorate those living with or who have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS. Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Veteran’s Memorial Plaza, the Santa Cruz AIDS Project (SCAP) invites the community to attend the World AIDS Day Remembrance Celebration to honor the millions of lives worldwide affected by the disease.

The program will consist of musical performances, lighting of remembrance candles, words of compassion and the reading of names of those in Santa Cruz County who have lost their lives to AIDS/HIV. The ceremony will conclude with the opportunity for the audience to share the names of family and friends who have passed, followed by a reception.

“HIV affects some of the most vulnerable people that don’t necessarily have any sort of visible presence that people see,” said Angie Wootton, SCAP volunteer coordinator and a former UCSC student. “Because they don’t have that [visibility], there’s a stigma. It keeps people from speaking up for themselves. That’s why it is important to have these events where the community gets together.”

In light of federal budget cuts, in 2008 SCAP terminated their education prevention program. Since then, SCAP has had volunteers reach out to the community as best as they can.

Wootton said approximately 25 of 38 volunteers are UCSC students.

UCSC student Rachel Hastert explained why she chose to volunteer for SCAP.

“It’s an important issue, and [it] affects so many people,” Hastert said. “I wanted to do something in the community and I like working with people.”

Volunteers is vital to continuing SCAP’s work.

“There’s been funding cuts, so we have a harder time going out to spread our message about HIV testing, spreading free condoms and our information about services,” Wootton said. “This is one of those ways we can create more community recognition about SCAP and let people know that we exist and that we have services.”

Patricia Castagnola, SCAP director of client services, addressed the lack of proper education about AIDS/HIV.

“They talk briefly about it in school,” she said. “Maybe for sex education, like a sentence.”

Due to the lack of funding for outreach, SCAP representatives say there is little education on how a person can contract AIDS/HIV.

“There’s a stigma since it’s less public and people are talking about it less,” Wootton said. “[People think] if you got it, it was completely your fault. There’s a lot of blaming for people who are positive, for their choices or their lifestyles or for something about them that people think inherently makes them not worthy of making good decisions.”

SCAP members stress the importance of being informed about AIDS, and remind the public of its existence.

“I think our younger generation feels that ‘people aren’t dying as they did in the 80s,’ and maybe they feel that they can’t get it,” Castagnola said. “That issue is still out there and people aren’t having safe sex and they’re sharing needles and doing things that they aren’t being careful of.”

Due to the lack of education, public awareness and resulting stigmas, many SCAP clients do not attend the annual event. While a current SCAP client will speak at the ceremony, Wootton said many are still too uncomfortable to attend.

“Even on the one day of the year dedicated to remembering those who have passed from HIV and honoring those who are currently living with HIV, there’s still so much stigma … We can’t expect our clients to come out for themselves,” she said.

SCAP encourages individuals to get involved outside of World AIDS Day and provides various opportunities for people to contribute to the effort to fight AIDS.

“We’re always looking for volunteers and we take donations,” Castagnola said. “We have a food pantry here and different groups here do food drives for us. We had a church … that instead of going trick-or-treating, they went trick-or-treating for canned foods for us. They do that every year and it’s a great way of helping our clients.”

SCAP encourages supporters to wear the red ribbon, the international symbol of AIDS, in honor and remembrance of this day. They will be handed out during event.

“The whole point is to have a visible symbol,” Wootton said. “When you walk around, people ask you what it is or if they know it, they’re reminded of it.”

Photo by Kyan Mahzouf.

On Oct. 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at L’Atelier Salon, stylists will volunteer their time offering haircuts and selling raffle tickets to benefit cancer and HIV/AIDS research and treatment programs at City of Hope, a clinical research center located in Southern California.

This annual nationwide campaign is in its fourth year at L’Atelier Salon. Salon manager Erica Penney said one employee, Nick Saporito, was integral in bringing the fundraiser to Santa Cruz.

“One of our stylists, Nick, brought this idea to us because it was very close to home for him,” Penney said.

Saporito spent a significant amount of time visiting Duarte, Calif. from 2005 to 2007 when his father was being treated for cancer.

“My dad was at City of Hope getting treated for his lymphoma,” Saporito said. “I learned about this nationwide campaign while I was there.”

The American Cancer Society estimates 11,714,000 people in the United States had cancer in 2007, according to their website. It is estimated that over 1 million people are living with HIV in the United States. When these serious diseases strike, resources run thin: patients often lose the ability to work, and medications are exorbitantly expensive.

Fundraisers and private donations are pivotal for City of Hope’s livelihood.

There will be a $40 minimum donation to receive a haircut during the fundraiser. Usually the salon staff performs about 70 haircuts throughout the day and raises roughly $4,000.

“It’s a cut-a-thon,” Saporito said. “We do haircuts for anybody at a flat rate. We also hold a raffle with great prizes. Most of the prizes are gift certificates or baskets from downtown businesses. We’ve got a little bit of everything.”

On the East Coast, hundreds of businesses participate in the City of Hope fundraiser. Salon manager Penney said L’Atelier is one of few on the West Coast to participate.

“Until this year, we were the only West Coast salon to participate,” Penney said. “Now there is one other in California doing it. I love participating in this fundraiser because City of Hope is such a great organization.”

Illustration by Muriel Gordon

Thirty years ago this Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported for the first time the case of five gay men in Los Angeles who contracted what was then interpreted as a rare form of pneumonia.

Little did anyone know that this “pneumonia” would turn into a global pandemic that would kill nearly 30 million people since its initial discovery.

We have made significant global progress since 1981 in our steps to acknowledge the existence of AIDS both culturally and medically. But today these advances are being threatened. Due to the economic recession, many states have cut funding from AIDS-related programs or tightened eligibility requirements for them, making it more difficult for AIDS patients to receive financial assistance for medication.

A record number of U.S. citizens — more than 8,300 in 13 states — are on waiting lists for antiretrovirals and other drugs used to treat HIV and AIDS, their side effects, and resulting mental health conditions.

In addition, Illinois has made it harder for its residents to qualify for a program that helps HIV patients pay for their medications. On July 1, the income limit for eligibility will go from $54,450 per person to $32,670, which could limit the accessibility of treatment for more than 100 people per year who would no longer qualify for assistance. Florida is also considering similar measures, as officials there may soon decide to cut the eligibility threshold in half to $21,780 or less in income. And Georgia has already cut $100,000 from its AIDS drug assistance program (ADAP), which serves 4,300 people.

These measures are devastating for people who have AIDS, as more and more people today are turning to ADAPs to help them pay for life-prolonging medications after the economic recession put millions of people out of work and cut their health insurance coverage. The cruel irony, however, is that because of this financial downturn, states are cutting funds from these programs, thereby significantly curtailing access to government aid.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, the number of people living with HIV is actually on the rise. While part of the reason for this is that more people are able to live longer with AIDS, the fact is that for every person who starts treatment, two others become infected. In San Francisco alone, a city of roughly 800,000 residents, there are two new HIV infections every day. More than one million people live with AIDS in the United States, and that number is 33 million worldwide as of the end of 2009.

It would be morally unjust and arguably discriminatory to continue making drastic cuts to programs that benefit AIDS patients, considering that more than 60 percent of American males living with AIDS became infected with HIV through male-to-male sexual contact and over 40 percent of those living with an AIDS diagnosis are African American, according to figures from 2008.

There are also long-term financial repercussions that could only get worse if people with AIDS don’t have access to medical resources. Yes, some states are saving money by making cuts to social welfare programs like these, but at what cost? According to a recent United Nations report, global AIDS costs could reach $35 billion by 2031, an astounding figure that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called “wholly unsustainable.”

How much worse will that figure be if programs that help people with AIDS get psychological and physical treatment continue to get decreased funding or are axed altogether? This will only lead to more people dying because they cannot afford paying for life-prolonging medications out-of-pocket.

Yes, our economy is in a rut — that fact is inescapable, as we are privy to it any time we open a newspaper or tune into CNN. But slashing funds for AIDS patients to get already-existing medications that can help them live with the disease is like a twisted version of dangling a carrot in front of a horse’s nose. Although states’ fiscal situations may be dire, these cuts to AIDS patients could literally be a matter of life or death.

Photo by Morgan Grana.

Callan Hajosy is a recent UC Santa Cruz graduate and Merrill College affiliate who studied environmental studies and economics. Next month she will be embarking on a five-month open-ended trip to Tanzania as a representative of the non-profit organization One Heart Source, which helps educate people about HIV/AIDS.

CHP: Can you tell me a little bit about the organization you work for?
Hajosy: I work for One Heart Source (OHS), a non-profit NGO that is based in Arusha, Tanzania. We run educational programs trying to break the generational cycle of transmission of HIV/AIDS.

CHP: How did you get involved with the organization?
Hajosy: Forty-one schools nationwide are involved. I got involved because a good friend of mine from high school was one of the first volunteers to go over there. He worked there for two years, told me about it, and I went last year. I was a volunteer there for eight weeks and then they asked me to go back as a program manager. That was after I graduated.

CHP: What pulled you into it and made you interested?
Hajosy: I’ve always wanted to go to Africa. I was already going after school [to South Africa and Tanzania] and then I heard about [OHS], read their website and was just hooked on it. I thought it would be a really great way to travel and help and get involved.

CHP: Where will you be going in a month and what will you be doing there?
Hajosy: I will be going to the village of Mateves, which is in Arusha, Tanzania, and I will be there for five months just running the summer programs. We also have programs in Zanzibar, so I’ll be running back and forth. We [volunteers] teach classes about three times a week, or however long they want us, and we also do community outreach programs and community teachings. There’s an orphanage there, so we work there also. We teach about HIV/AIDS awareness, protection and empowerment.

CHP: Do you have any future plans?
Hajosy: I don’t know, I have a one-way ticket right now, so it could end up being a while. Hopefully I stay involved. What I do right now when I’m not in Tanzania is recruit UCSC students and help them go through the application process, and also help them with pre-fieldwork. Right now I have five volunteers. I am so excited — I had my first dream of being back in Tanzania last night and I was like, “It’s time! It’s coming!” It’s definitely an adventure.

Illustration by Patrick Yeung.

In an excerpt from an in-depth interview released by the official Vatican newspaper, the Pope stipulated that condoms may in some cases be morally acceptable, “as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom.”

The Pope’s comments, for which he received some praise from AIDS activists and other groups, show some progression on the exceedingly long path to curb the HIV/AIDS pandemic. However, this “progress” is an embarrassingly small step to solve a problem that is ravaging the people of an entire continent. For that, the Pope hardly deserves any credit.

The remarks came in response to a question from a German journalist about criticism the Pope received when, on a 2009 trip to Africa, he said that condoms are not a suitable solution to the scourge of HIV/AIDS plaguing Africa. “On the contrary, they increase the problem,” the Pope said.

In his recent interview, the Pope was presumably trying to clarify what he meant by those much-questioned comments. However, the Pope’s insinuation that a condom is only justified in an extreme case — such as that of a male sex worker having sex with another man — is entirely misguided. The HIV/AIDS virus is not confined merely to sex workers, or any one group.

Still, there are those who applaud the Pope’s recent comments simply because they came from the head of the Catholic Church, an institution that has formally condemned the use of any contraceptive method since the official church teaching, entitled “Humanae Vitae,” that was released by Pope Paul VI was made public. However, when viewed through a real-world framework where millions of people are threatened with contracting AIDS every single day, his comments address a miniscule portion of the issue, and thus, are inadequate.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has provided unequivocal evidence that condoms are effective at reducing the spread of the AIDS virus by 80 percent. For now, condoms represent the only widely accessible and practical barrier method that can be employed by the millions of people worldwide who need to protect themselves against the virus. So what does the Pope suggest those at-risk individuals — who don’t happen to be male prostitutes — do in the meantime? Simply not engage in sexual intercourse? Contract the virus anyway? Just as long as they don’t use a condom. For that, the Pope provides no answer.

While the Pope’s comments are not equal in stature to the official doctrine of the Catholic Church, as the head of a major world religion, his words hold considerable clout. Because of this, African bishops and church officials have openly appealed to the Pope to lessen the stigma of condoms in the hope that it would help prevent the spread of this disease. It appears that this meager concession is the best that the Pope can offer. And for now, official church doctrine will reign supreme over the health and welfare of millions of human beings.

Author Joël Barraquiel Tan recites a selection of poems from his latest book, “Type O Negative.” Tan, a visiting writer for UCSC’s Living Writers series, reads aloud to a crowded lecture hall. Photo by Molly Solomon.

Sitting in the Cantú GLBTI Resource Center, Joël Barraquiel Tan gesticulates as he tells students the current happenings of San Francisco’s queer community. Later that evening, he shares his poetry to a much larger crowd at the Living Writers series on campus, but at the moment, he tells his personal stories in a more intimate setting with a much smaller group. The conversation jumps from politics and writing to Filipino and Filipino-American culture.

Tan, who was born in Manila, is an openly queer Filipino-American and has actively participated in the queer community. Deeply rooted in activism, Tan worked for years to develop HIV/AIDS prevention programs such as the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team, before retiring from AIDS work in 2004. Currently, Tan works as the director of community engagement at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where he does community outreach through art.

Tan does not see his role in the community, his work as an activist, and his work as a writer as unrelated to one another.

“I don’t think of activism as a separate thing — [it’s] more of an impulse,” Tan said. “Whatever it is that’s driving me towards something, it is just to create more avenues of joy, hopefully.”

Tan said that he doesn’t see himself as “dystopian” and that instead he is ultimately interested in being a positive force looking forward, or a “futurist.” Tan doesn’t want to look back to define identity, but is interested in those “who will speculate on who we’re going be.”

Tan also sets his sights on the future as a writer and an academic. When discussing identity issues, gender studies and critical thinking, he explains that he wants to hear something new from academics.

“We’re in the middle of this incredible [cultural] shift and we’re still saying the same thing,” Tan said. “It’s wasted paper, it’s wasted language, it’s wasted scholarship.”

Tan’s energy extended to his reading later that night as the audience interacted with him, asking questions and laughing at his quick responses. At one point, when discussing his writing, Tan joked that he has “an ongoing battle with the mango,” referring to his fight against Asian stereotypes and the stock images of the exotic islander.

Throughout the evening, Tan read from his book of poetry, “Type O Negative,” a fictional autobiography that he describes as “operatic” and a “composite fictional history.” The book is heavily influenced by his father.

“My dad wrote it,” Tan said. “After he died…he came to me in dreams. We had a really fucked-up relationship.”

Overall, Tan’s work was well received by students and faculty alike. Literature professor Karen Yamashita, who described Tan as “provocative,” said that his book of poetry “deserved a wider readership.”

Yamashita hoped that Tan, as a queer Filipino who is “relaxed and very open” about who he is, would “open doors for students that are trying to work out their own issues on identity and gender,” she said.

Weston Tate, a fourth-year literature major, said he “enjoyed how [Tan] doesn’t hold to standards” and “mixed [Tagalog and English] languages.”

Desirae Karmazin, a fellow fourth-year literature major, enjoyed the ambiguity in Tan’s work and follow-up discussion.

“It was hilarious that [Tan] didn’t answer all the [student] questions but left it up to the reader,” Karmazin said. “He gave it some mystery.”

Despite the heavy topics Tan tackles in his writing — sexuality, abuse, family turmoil, AIDS and death — his reading was engaging and interactive.

Tan is not the only writer who will be visiting this quarter. Every Thursday of the quarter through Dec. 2, the Living Writers series will host an author reading. Upcoming visiting writers include Linh Dinh, James Maughn and Earll Kingston. The last event this quarter will be a reading of student work from the creative writing department.

Illustration by Louise Leong.

The Front Street location where the Santa Cruz needle exchange used to operate is now a meeting site for Alcoholics Anonymous.

After 14 years of operating, the Drop-In Center closed in September 2009.

By the last two weeks of September, Street Outreach Supporters (SOS) was already making home deliveries, and by October was exchanging needles at sites around Santa Cruz.

SOS is a collectively-run, all-volunteer organization that operates the needle exchange program in Santa Cruz. They provide free syringes for intravenous drug users in an effort to reduce the spread of HIV and other blood-borne diseases like Hepatitis B and C. Their volunteers drive vans out into neighborhoods, providing services to participants at fixed locations four days a week.

Because the organization operates without state funding, the group relies on small private grants and community fundraisers to continue these services.

“Last year state funding went from substantial to zero, but the need for needle exchange was still there,” said a volunteer who wished to remain anonymous.

On Saturday, April 3, more than 100 people, many of them UC Santa Cruz students, packed inside of a house on 215 Storey Street to raise money for SOS. Three bands played from 8 p.m. until midnight, with an audience spilling out onto the back porch and into the yard.

Events like these help keep SOS supplied with syringes, condoms and basic hygiene items like shampoo and socks.

In addition to concerts, an Alleycat bike race and a silent auction were held to help supplement several small private grants the organization has received. Because syringes are relatively inexpensive — some distributors sell them for nine cents each or less — the money raised at these events makes a big difference to the group.

Despite favorable turnouts to these fundraisers, the responses from certain parts of the community have not always been as supportive. In past years, police ticketed three volunteers, and concerns have been raised that the needle exchange program introduces more unaccounted needles into the community.

Savannah O’Neill, a fourth-year community studies major and SOS volunteer, says the group takes precautions to ensure that needles distributed by the group do not endanger the community. She remembers one concerned woman who contacted the needle exchange program after finding a syringe near her home.

SOS promptly offered to clean up the site and the situation was defused.

SOS also has other methods of limiting the hazards of discarded needles.

“People have to bring used needles to get [new] needles back,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill is one of the many students and alumni who are involved with SOS. Before the drop-in site was shut down in September 2009, two of the last three paid employees were UCSC graduates.

“The real manpower of the Drop-In Center for many years was from UCSC,” the anonymous volunteer said.

Student Health Outreach and Promotion (SHOP), the on-campus organization that promotes safer sex practices and provides free HIV testing and discounted condoms, has recently focused on this relationship between the needle exchange and UCSC students. In addition to carrying fliers for SOS sites, SHOP has also hosted workshops where volunteers from SOS educate participants about needle exchange in Santa Cruz, and larger national and global efforts.

Lidi Armenta, an HIV peer test coordinator with SHOP, said of SOS: “We are aware of needle exchange being a necessary component of harm reduction, and since SHOP is all about that, we support SOS.”

In the SCAP food pantry volunteer Justin White, a Cowell first-year, describes how various individuals and organizations host food drives for the organization and stock the pantry. Photo by Alex Zamora.

SCAP Executive Director Merle Smith has piloted the organization through recent budget cut woes, and credits the work of student volunteers with much of the group’s success. Photo by Alex Zamora.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

Students lined the aisles in the Biology of AIDS classroom on the last day of lecture, cash in hand, ready to turn in their final projects. About 130 students of the 294 enrolled in the class chose to raise $100 each for the Santa Cruz AIDS walk instead of turning in a term paper for the class, to help fund the efforts of the Santa Cruz AIDS Project (SCAP).

As they waited, the students compared fundraising success stories and nightmares, from the aunt who generously gave $50 to the neighbor whose dog chased them out of the house before they could even ask for a donation. Every dollar they raised and experience they relayed spoke volumes of what they’d learned about AIDS outside the classroom this quarter. And every dollar would become part of the almost $15,000 donation the students of UC Santa Cruz made to the 20th annual Santa Cruz AIDS Walk in 2010, which will take place this Saturday, April 10.

Public health care in California has suffered since the recent state budget cuts, and the funding for AIDS programs has been no exception. SCAP, which puts on the AIDS walk every year, was dealt a crushing blow when funding for HIV/AIDS education and prevention was cut completely from the state budget after California slashed $85 million from AIDS programs last year.

California has consistently had high HIV/AIDS infection rates. The Center for Disease Control ranked the state second highest among the 50 states in cumulative reported AIDS cases in 2008. Because of the prevalence of infection in California, the decrease in funding for these programs has hit organizations like SCAP hard. SCAP Executive Director Merle Smith said the organization has since been kept afloat by the efforts of the Santa Cruz community, especially volunteers from UCSC.

“We could not manage without the support we get from the community,” she said. “The support of the community and the support we get from students, the free labor, it literally keeps us going.”

For years both local and student volunteers have played a huge role at SCAP. The organization was founded by a group of concerned citizens in the early 80s at a time when the AIDS epidemic was ravaging the country, Santa Cruz County included. The organization is in its 25th year of operation, and with the help of student volunteers, has weathered the storm of the recent cuts to their state funding to provide much-needed services to the community.

Though some programs have fallen victim to lack of funding, SCAP continues to offer HIV testing, mentoring and a food pantry and transitional housing, among other important services, from their new offices on Front Street in downtown Santa Cruz. The unspecatacular building looks much like any other professional office, and the plain façade doesn’t even hint at the exceptional work that goes on inside.

Every quarter, about 50 students from various classes and majors make room in their packed schedules to devote a minimum of two hours each week to helping the community cope with the effects of HIV/AIDS.

Volunteer Coordinator Alice H. Sebastian, a UCSC alumna herself, said she works primarily with students from her alma mater and is continuously amazed at the hard work students are willing to put in to help members of the community living with HIV.

“They really are doing everything we’re doing,” Sebastian said of the students she manages.

As she speaks, the unmistakably youthful voices of volunteers float into her cubicle in the SCAP building from the nearby rooms. Her words are occasionally cut by the loud thump of a paper cutter. Even in the days after spring break, the SCAP offices are alive with the energy of students.

The option to volunteer as a final project allows students to put their classroom education into the context of the real world, said UCSC biology professor Mary Zavanelli.

Zavanelli requires students who take her Biology of AIDS class to either commit several hours of their time to volunteer organization like SCAP or write a term paper. Not surprisingly, many students opt to spend time with SCAP rather than sit down to write a multiple-page paper.

“I [am] interested in getting the students out and volunteering in the community, because with an issue as complex as AIDS the only way to understand is to get in to that community,” she said. “It’s more broad than you think it is.”

And Zavanelli’s students do get out, in a big way. Sebastian said the class consistently raises at least $15,000 for the AIDS walk each year. UCSC students also comprise the majority of the walkers.

Sebastian’s words quicken as her professional demeanor gives way to one of excitement while describing the reactions of SCAP clients to student volunteers.

“Clients will come out [to the AIDS walk] and just stop and say ‘Look at all these people who care,’ and there’ll be 300 people and of that 250 of them will be UCSC students,” she said. “And they’ll say ‘Look at all these young people who care.’ That’s a beautiful thing.”

SCAP also has long-standing ties to the school, in many different programs. Sebastian said they regularly employ community studies, health sciences, sociology and psychology students, and they work hard to find a place for each individual.

“If you go to other places to volunteer they’re going to say ‘These are our positions, we’re looking for this number of hours to do these kind of things,’” Sebastian said. “We have a very grassroots-based kind of method to doing our work, and even though it’s 25 years later we’re still uniquely designed to use volunteers.”

After consultation with Sebastian, volunteers are placed in positions that allow them to work within their skill set and area of interest, and apply it to AIDS advocacy. Students primarily interested in health care, for example, will be encouraged to find ways to apply their interest to public service.

Sebastian remembered one student who volunteered with SCAP who took his knowledge of health science and applied it to education and outreach to provide a resource for individuals at the drop-in center to identify if they had a staph infection, and then to find their options for treatment.

Selfless as they are, student interns at SCAP get back just as much as they give. Students who work with the organization gain real-world job experience while still being allowed the flexibility needed to put their education first.

“The vast majority of our volunteers are coming from the UC because of the miraculous combination of educated, driven, competent people who are already so busy they don’t mind shoving in an extra five or 10 hours, but they are in this position where they have these skills but they can’t get paid yet — they’re not certified yet to go get the job,” Sebastian said. “So we’re going to help them while they work at the dining hall on campus, or the grocery store, or the retail shop or as a nanny,” she added. “We’re going to help them build their resume so when it comes time to graduate they’re going have a this great recommendation and great experience.”

Emily Bluffi, who graduated from UCSC this winter with a degree in anthropology, said the work she’s done as an HIV test counselor both on campus and with SCAP has given her invaluable experience for a career in the public health field.

“If you’re going to help people in any sort of personal way, sex education or anything that affects their health, I think you have to have a good understanding of people, have a respect for them and be able to respect where they’re coming from,” she said.

Bluffi also emphasized the importance of volunteering within the Santa Cruz community.

“Your college experience should not just be one-dimensional,” she said. “As a student it’s good to have some kind of volunteer job or in some way connect to the community because once you graduate you’re no longer a student, you’re part of the community.”

Students also benefit from working in the field as it takes their study beyond theory and lecture. UCSC fourth-year politics major Eve Pourzan has been able to channel her interest in women’s access to affordable, high-quality health care into her internship with SCAP as she works to help the organization re-establish a community resource center, their former resource center having been a victim of the governor’s cuts to AIDS programs.

“At an organization such as SCAP, you can see direct results,” Pourzan said. “You work with people, you aren’t five steps removed from the actual progress that is taking place.”

The work Bluffi does as an HIV test counselor is one of the results of Pourzan’s work that she gets to watch happen. The organization was recently able to offer testing for the first time since the HIV testing program was cut this summer, a product of Pourzan and many others’ hard work.

UCSC alumnus Sean Lowry stayed on as a SCAP volunteer well past his school-mandated internship because of the opportunity for hands-on learning it allowed. Despite having graduated, Lowry can still be found lounging in the SCAP lobby talking with volunteers and lending a hand where needed, and he seems to be very much at home in the office as he leans back in a desk chair and explains his reasons for sticking around.

“I finished my internship and kept working here because it was more fun to get independent study credit working here than being in class,” Lowry said. “I felt like I was out in the field for six months doing real work, so going back into the classroom just seemed like a step backward.”

Many students like Lowry receive credit from the university toward their major for their volunteer work. But a lot of them stay on because of the things they get from their internships that don’t go on their transcript. SCAP Executive Director Smith believes that volunteering gives students an opportunity to see their education mean something more than grade points.

“It also gives them an opportunity to feel valued. Because a lot of times students get their education and feel like some of the work they’re doing is just to get through. Where, if they’re here, it’s a personal experience that is probably as rewarding as anything they will ever do in their lives,” she said. “When they’re able to take someone who is suffering from the disease but is also hungry back and help them build a food bag to take home to eat — I think that would be moving to anyone, but especially to a student.”

The value of student volunteers goes beyond the general need for unpaid workers. As new developments in science and medicine change the way AIDS is treated, so does the way society treats AIDS. As new vaccines and medications are developed, the problems of the disease have evolved from a death sentence to managing the diagnosis in daily life.

Sebastian explained that students are uniquely equipped to deal with this new era of AIDS advocacy.

“The beauty of having young student volunteers and interns is they can take all this education and bring a new face to it — it’s a new generation of HIV activists,” she said. “This isn’t the HIV community, this isn’t the group that started this organization, these are new people bringing all this in, and they’re not the ones who watched HIV from the beginning, but there’s this totally new perspective on it and that’s amazing,” she added. “There’s something beautiful about having student interns who are coming in at this time and shifting the concept around HIV activism. It looks different, and it needs to look different.”

The face of AIDS advocacy is changing, providing opportunities for students to make a much larger contribution to society than they have in the past. SCAP’s volunteers are using their education to utilize their skills in ways students haven’t before.

“Youth aren’t just a resource tomorrow,” Sebastian said. “They’re a resource right now.”