Peer Education Program

(Formerly Straight Talks and Student Voice Panels)

Queer Voices Panels consist of 3-5 Penn State students who are LGBTQ+ or allies to the LGBTQ+ community. While not representative of the entire LGBTQ+ community, panelists share their personal experiences and perspectives with classrooms, residence hall floors, fraternities and sororities, and other campus groups.

Panelists give a brief overview of the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity and educate audience members on terminology and identities in the LGBTQ+ community. Panelists then give their personal stories related to coming out, being an LGBTQ+ student at Penn State, or committing to being an ally. Panels finish with a question and answer session where audience members are welcome to ask panelists about their identities and experiences.

Panels are great for any course subject, student or community organizations, and residence halls! If you would like to request a panel, complete the Panel Request Form here.

The Peer Education coordinator will email you within three business days indicating that your request has been received and will notify you of your panel's status at least five days in advance of your panel. When contacted, please confirm that you are still interested in the panel as soon as you can. Confirmations will let us better prepare students for the panel.

When requesting a panel:

• Please complete a panel request form two weeks in advance to the panel date
• When requesting multiple panels, fill out a request form for each panel. Please limit to three panel requests a semester. If more are needed, please email Kate Rawson, ker5794@psu.edu, or lgbtq@psu.edu to see if more panels can be arranged.
• Have a back-up date in mind. There may be other panels requested for the day you chose. To respect our peer educator’s time, we are limited to two panels per day.

Panels are based on student participation. In the case that we are unable to fill a student panel, there are still other peer education program options. Email lgbtq@psu.edu for more information about the other opportunities available. 

Thank you for your interest in our peer education program and your commitment to Penn State’s values of integrity, respect, discovery, excellence and community.