Empowering Teens to Make Informed Choices

November 2025

Each summer, a group of BYU nursing students and professors goes to Asunción, Paraguay, to teach teens about the risks of being sexually active. Carter Bird, a senior nursing student on this year’s study abroad, grew both his testimony and his skills through the experience. “I was spiritually strengthened as I worked with the [Paraguayan] students. I was uplifted by them,” he says. “I learned new things and how to teach them, and I learned how to teach in another language.”

In workshops and small group settings, the BYU nursing students also teach CPR, first aid, nutrition, and dental hygiene. Bird says, “My experience showed me that sharing the skills with which God has blessed me is important, and I want to do that for the rest of my life.” Over the past six years, BYU students have interacted with more than 4,000 students in Paraguay. And the results of the program are encouraging. “The health officials there told us that the number of teenage pregnancies has decreased since BYU has been coming,” says Bird.

Real-World Solutions

This inspiring learning experience is donor funded and available to several nursing students each summer. It started in 2018 when BYU nursing Professor Sheri Palmer was named a Fulbright Scholar and started a collaborative research project with the University of Asunción in Paraguay to decrease the percentage of pregnancies in young women under the age of 17 in their metropolitan area, known as Greater Asunción.

The joint research team identified the following as factors contributing to the high rate: school non-attendance, inadequate sex education, social pressure, widespread cultural acceptance, limited life opportunities, and poor communication. BYU Nursing is helping to implement proposed solutions.

“Many health issues stem from a lack of access to reliable health information, particularly surrounding reproductive health,” says nursing Professor Sondra Heaston, who now directs the project. “By providing education on relationships, family planning, and sexual health, we are empowering individuals to make informed choices that will have lasting benefits for their communities.” BYU Nursing’s support for the project is ongoing, and planning for the 2026 experience has already begun.

To those who support inspiring learning at BYU, Bird says, “Thank you for enabling students like me to continue to share the light of BYU and the light of Christ at home, in our communities, and abroad. The light you’ve given me has blessed countless lives.”