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By Alisha Hipwell
November 13, 2005
Brandon
Busteed has a sobering statistic: Studies show that half of all ninth-graders
use alcohol.
But here's
why he thinks that same statistic is good news.
"That
means half do not, so we have an opportunity to influence those students at a
critical point," said Mr. Busteed, a 28-year-old McCandless native, who
has developed an online alcohol-education program to help colleges curb
high-risk drinking. Last year, the company he founded, Outside the Classroom,
adapted the program to target underage drinking in high school students.
This fall,
the program, called AlcoholEdu, is being used for the first time in high
schools in Western Pennsylvania. In a joint venture with Outside The Classroom,
Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the North Hills Alliance Against Highly
Addictive Drugs, five north suburban schools are offering the course to ninth-
or 10th-graders.
The schools
are North Allegheny, North Catholic, North Hills, Pine-Richland and Quaker Valley. Other groups, such as athletes, and parents, also will have the opportunity
to take the course.
"It's
exciting to know we're making a difference in the place where I grew up,"
said Mr. Busteed, who believes that college and high school students can learn
how to have fulfilling social lives without abusing alcohol. His experience in
trying to reform the alcohol-soaked social scene at his college alma mater, Duke University, inspired him to create Outside the Classroom, based in Newton, Mass., in 2000.
Debbie
Kehoe, executive director of the North Hills Alliance Against Highly Addictive
Drugs, said the course is a perfect fit with her organization's mission to stop
drug use among youths.
"We
recognize that alcohol is the most abused drug among youth. Experimentation and
abuse [of other drugs] usually begins with alcohol. This has the potential to
be a really significant partnership with Outside the Classroom here in Western Pennsylvania," she said.
Last month,
the alliance hosted an AlcoholEdu training session for representatives from the
participating districts.
MADD
received federal grant money to cover about 90 percent of the cost of providing
the AlcoholEdu program to high schools. The alliance picked up the remaining 10
percent. Ms. Kehoe said it would have cost each district about $7,000 to offer
the course otherwise.
The high
school version of AlcoholEdu uses the same teaching techniques as the college
version, but nearly all the information has been adapted for younger students.
Mr. Busteed
said the high school version uses science, such as information on how alcohol
affects the teenage brain, and rational thinking to dissuade students from
underage drinking.
"It's
not just an explanation of the law," he said.
The course
consists of three, 30-minute online sessions that can be done at home or
school. The sessions combine facts and figures with audio and video
presentations, interactive case studies and pre- and post-surveys that track
changes in knowledge, attitude and behavior.
Data from
the 2,039 students who completed the course during the 2004-05 academic year
showed the percentage of drinkers who did not see a need to change their
behavior dropped by almost 25 percent after AlcoholEdu, and the percentage of
students who were trying to change increased by more than 50 percent.
Ms. Kehoe
said she hoped parents would take the course, too. "Parents of high school
students still have an opportunity to reinforce this message at home," she
said.
Mr. Busteed
originally conceived Outside the Classroom as a nonprofit organization, but no
foundation would give him money. So he decided to run it as a company, wrote a
business plan and went to venture capitalists for backing. Three months later,
he had $750,000 in funding.
Today, the
company employs 25, and AlcoholEdu is used by about 500 colleges and
universities in 50 states and 150 high schools in 20 states. Mr. Busteed
expects his company to turn a profit in 2006.
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