Humans of USU:

Editor’s Note: The interviewee wishes to remain anonymous while talking about her experiences with sexual assault.

“Last summer, I was sexually abused by a person that I trusted, who was also very manipulative. Like any abusive situation, it took a while to get out of it, and even once I was out of it, it still stuck with me. It’s taken a lot of conscious work and effort to feel this recovered.

SAAVI was great. I didn’t go to them until about six months after it happened. I wish I went to them right away. All the other agencies that I’d worked with seemed to have an idea of how I should do something — they mapped out my routes and stuff, but they seemed to want me to do things a certain way.

When I went to SAAVI, Jenny gave me all my options and the best advice possible and there was no agenda involved. Her only agenda was to help me and to hold everyone responsible accountable.

After going through the process, I learned how frequently sexual assault actually happens to people on campus. You need an advocate by your side the whole process through, and not everyone can be your advocate, because they might be your judge, or your investigator or someone else who has to be objective. They can’t always be focused on you. They’re focused on both people. So if I could give advice to anyone who’s just coming to terms with their assault, I would tell them to go to SAAVI first.

I had advocates within the university, but the system is set up to fail. There are holes in the process that make it hell for victims. It should have taken sixty days, from beginning to end, but it took an entire school year plus some to get any sort of results from the university, and the police just left me hanging for months.

But SAAVI, when I went in there, she just knew that it was true — and it is. That was really empowering. When everyone else in the world was questioning me and doubting my story, SAAVI believed me.”