Guest speaker:Freddy Laboy

I think it’s a great thing that people, like Freddy Laboy, are adding medically assisted recovery into the spectrum. If someone is making those strides forward, that needs to be acknowledged. If we constantly turn people away just because they are in recovery in a different way than what we personally agree with, we shouldn’t downplay it.

It’s important to advocate for inclusive recovery on all fronts and continue to help people in any way we can. It was really interesting to hear him speak about individual stories as well. Too often, we try to view recovery as one size fits all, and that’s not the case. Each individual needs to be treated like just that, an individual. Everyone is on their own road and journey within recovery, and whether that be medically assisted or not, we need to recognize that.

Brianna Cicero

Brianna is a senior journalism major at Temple University with a concentration on Editorial Management. She is currently a Content Strategist Intern and Editor-in-Chief for Odyssey, the Editorial Director of Temple's chapter of Spoon University and the Deputy Director of Parliament Communications for Temple Student Government. This past summer, Brianna worked for her local, hometown paper, LNP and LancasterOnline, covering events and issues important to the people of Lancaster County. She is also a 2016 alumna of The Fund For American Studies' Institute on Political Journalism where she covered the 2016 election in Washington D.C for a political startup, The Stream, as well as attended briefings at publications like The Washington Post. In addition, she has previously served as a contributor for BuzzFeed, was a staff reporter for Eastern University's newspaper, The Waltonian, and was the EditorinChief of Eastern's literary magazine, Inklings. Contact Brianna at [email protected] .