Mar 1, 2022 5:49pm

Presenting, Scary but Worth It

My name is Jadyn. I’m a junior at Artesia High School and I’ve been in Evolvement since October of 2021. Evolvement is a statewide movement trying to prevent and control nicotine and tobacco use in New Mexico. I get to work on No Minor Sale which is a campaign that’s a part of Evolvement which advocates restricting the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to minors. I have a few ideas for my future career but the main career path I’m interested in is becoming a therapist where I hope to help teens. I also hope to help with the high schools in my future community and bring light to the selling and use of nicotine and tobacco products to minors. Since being in Evolvement I’ve gotten the opportunity to present about No Minor Sale to two organizations in Artesia who both strive to help minors.

The first presentation I did was to the Artesia Lions Club, a nonprofit organization, whose purpose is to help and serve the community around them. For the Lions Club presentation, I had the opportunity to do it in person. The next presentation I did was to the Changing Lives Coalition located in Artesia whose purpose is to help strengthen our community through prevention, intervention, and treatment services to help create a safe and healthy environment. Sadly, for this presentation, I had to do it over zoom.

For both presentations, I presented about the prevention of nicotine and tobacco sales to minors and educating people on the dangers of flavors in tobacco products.  These two presentations actually were the first campaign opportunities to happen in Artesia and the Changing Lives Coalition is the first organization to be a No Minor Sale campaign partner in Artesia! I got great feedback from both organizations and they were both really interested in how the nicotine and tobacco industry affected my school. I was really nervous going into both presentations but at the end of the day, I’m so glad I got the opportunity to present on this predicament.

In doing both presentations, I got the chance to learn more about Evolvement and the No Minor Sale campaign as well as why it’s so vital that we reduce the illegal sale of tobacco and nicotine products to minors. I also was able to face my fear of public speaking head-on and learn that public speaking isn’t that scary. I hope if we can successfully end the sale of these products to minors, maybe we can help in the risk of teens getting addicted to nicotine and tobacco products. Another law that needs to be changed is preemption which restricts local governments from having the power to change local tobacco policies in their cities. If we can start to tear down preemption then maybe local change can help to influence change at a state level. Even though there has been some movement there still is a long way to go to get real change in New Mexico.

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