Fellow: Stephanie Orozco
Seed Lab Cohort: 2020/2021
Only 13 states in the United States are required to include medically factual information regarding sex and HIV education. This means far too much is left up to the opinion of those providing the education. A lack of a centralized sex ed curricula in the U.S. now often leads individuals to turn to alternative means of education, especially Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) that predominantly speak Spanish. Since sexuality is more than biology, comprehensive sexual education must reflect various aspects including identity, relationships, values, beliefs, and pleasure. Stephanie’s work respects the fact that individual sexuality is unique and multifaceted, and meets individuals where they are at, particularly individuals from the Latin American diaspora.
Stephanie Orozco’s goal is to create and provide easily accessible, culturally relevant, and stigma free sexual and reproductive health education in English and in Spanish. She seeks to make sure that a language barrier does not stop Spanish speaking BIPOC from accessing resources and educational content that create empowered and autonomous sexual citizens.
Stephanie is a Mexican-American woman, a first-generation college graduate, a rape survivor, and a sexual educator. Over the past six years, she’s been a lobbyist for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of the Pacific Southwest, a peer health mentor, a dildo salesperson, a sexual health event organizer, and just generally working hard to cobble together a path as a sexual educator since there is no set, accessible path in her community.
