From faculty to footballers to fraternity brothers, the men of Utah State University aren't embarrassed to wear high heels. Each spring, the campus SAAVI organization (Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information) hosts a "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes" event, part of an international effort in which men parade through campus in pumps to raise awareness for sexual assault treatment and prevention. Walkers take pledges, with funds going to the SAAVI office and the new "Men Can Stop Rape" national program. This year, the Aggie football team hopes to defend their title as "Organizational Champions," with more than 50 participants.

Student Ryan Knighton says: "After "walking a mile in her shoes," no one knew, just by looking at me, how badly my feet were blistered and hurting. You can never know, just by looking at someone, who bears the scars of sexual assault."

Volunteer Jessica Vassil says she's ecstatic as she watches the walk. "I'm thrilled. It gets me really excited to know that these guys care enough about this issue to look kind of foolish. It also gives me a lot of hope." Jessica became involved with the SAAVI organization after a personal experience. As a survivor of sexual assault, Jessica says, "To have these guys come out, these big basketball players and football players and fraternity guys, it makes me very hopeful things will change."

It may seem like a silly way to get the word out, but Jessica says the event opens people up. "This is a comfortable atmosphere to address such a serious topic," she says. "It opens up a frank conversation about sexual assault." SAAVI director Rachel Brighton agrees. "That's what is really incredible. It takes a topic people typically don't want to talk about, but it attracts them and they want to learn more. It makes a difficult topic approachable."

The SAAVI office at Utah State University is a unique campus organization that specifically handles interpersonal viole ce issues including rape, dating and domestic violence, and stalking, by treating victims and implementing prevention programs for students and staff. "I feel as though [sexual assault] is brushed under the rug all too often with universities," Jessica says. "SAAVI has been the biggest blessing. It was a way to kind of take my life back. I don't think you ever fully get over it, but I'm at a point where I can talk about what happened to me. It doesn't upset me; I'm not going to cry about it tonight. It happened, and I've moved on. It gives me that much more passion to work with this cause." She is especially grateful that the Utah State program has committed support from the highest levels of the administration. Rachel agrees that administrative cooperation makes a big difference. "They understand the issues and they do what they can to help."

"[Sexual assault] is not a women's issue. This isn't a men's issue. This is an everyone issue," says Rachel. "Anyone can experience violence, and we can all do something about it."

"People severely underestimate how many people this affects," adds Rachel. "To have a program like Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, where everyone can come take part and be free to help out in any way they can, is an amazing thing to be a part of."

The Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event will take place at Utah State University on April 7, 2010. For more information on participation, visit the SAAVI website: www.usu.edu/saavi or the national website: www.walkamileinhershoes.org.

Correction: The woman pictured in our magazine for this article was incorrectly identified as Jessica Vasil. It is SAAVI director, Rachel Brighton.