Enhancing Students HIV/AIDS Prevention Skills through a Graphic Novel

South Carolina (SC) ranks 6th in the United States for new HIV cases (South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, DHEC, 2011). To reduce this troubling trend, education and prevention efforts are needed to raise young adults’ awareness of HIV/AIDS issues. Existing prevention information is rarely in a format that appeals to youth. Visuals in graphic novels can motivate students to read, and can aid in their understanding of text (see Carter, 2007, and Gavigan, 2011, for example). To meet this need, the researchers and a graphic illustrator, working with students in the SC Department of Juvenile Justice School District, developed an age-appropriate, culturally diverse graphic novel on HIV/AIDS, entitled, AIDS in the End Zone. It was tested with young adults in SC public libraries in 2013 using pre- and post- surveys to measure knowledge gains from reading the graphic novel. Preliminary results of the surveys will be discussed and focus group data will be presented. Ways in which the project could be replicated in other libraries and classrooms will also be discussed.