This week, we're proud to highlight our The University of Texas at Dallas chapter! Founded by president Aspen Hough, she was inspired to make a difference with End Overdose. She is leading the charge to make training available!
EO: What sparked your interest in overdose prevention/response and End Overdose in particular?
Aspen Hough: Many people assume that I have lost someone close to me and that’s why I’m involved. But this isn’t the case. I just care. I’ve never really understood the controversy of harm reduction. I believe that no one deserves to die, and I think more people should think the same. My interest in overdose prevention/response began in high school, when I did my high school capstone project on addiction recovery and harm reduction. I decided then that I was going to continue this research into college as a neuroscience and psychology student. At some point, scrolling on TikTok, (it was Cami Petyn’s page actually) I discovered End Overdose. Seeing how overdose had affected many of my communities, I signed up to volunteer for Electric Forest. This was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I knew from here how essential their work was and that I wanted to be a part of spreading their mission. As soon as I got home from Forest, I applied to have an End Overdose chapter at UT Dallas.
EO: Can you describe your experience as chapter president of EO UTD?
AH: Being chapter president has been a rewarding and challenging experience. I dedicate a lot of time to this organization but seeing its impact has been so worth it. I’m proud to say that we’re the first harm reduction organization on campus, and we’re bringing life-saving education and resources to both students and the community.
EO: How has it been building the chapter from the ground up?
AH: It took us a while to get started. Building a dedicated team that is prepared to put in the work it takes for us to achieve our goals has been challenging. Drug usage and harm reduction is very stigmatized at my university, and I’ve discovered that there is not a whole lot of knowledge on the topic. I knew this going into it, and is a big reason why I started the chapter. After a year of finding a solid officer team and making initial connections with other organizations, we finally have picked up some steam. Our chapter has done 22 events and distributed 1354 doses Naloxone. And we have more trainings popping up all the time.
EO: Where can you use support?
AH: We always need more volunteers. Currently we have a very small team, but in order to expand our outreach we need more people. I want End Overdose to have a presence at festivals all over Texas and more nightlife in DFW. We’ve also been wanting to branch out to community assistance organizations, like harm reduction, sober living communities, addiction rehabilitation centers, and unhoused resource centers. We have big goals in helping the larger Texas area, not just our campus, so having additional trainers to volunteer at these events could be huge for us.
EO: How have you developed authentic connections within the community? AH: Our most meaningful connections have been with organizations which our members have had previous relationships with outside of End Overdose. I am very involved in the nightlife/music industry in Dallas so we have been able to do a lot of trainings there. Our vice president, Pranav Kumar, is an EMT ion campus for UEMR. , so we have done a lot of collaborations with them as well. We have had the most success using our existing individual networks. Any other collaborations, have come from us tabling and making ourselves known on campus.
EO: You’ve set up some amazing collaborations and events. What’re the major highlights from your chapter’s work to date, whether it’s in night life or the general community?
AH: We are cooking up some big things at the UT Dallas chapter. Our major highlights haven’t happened yet, we have some huge collaborations coming up that I’m very excited about. So keep an eye out to see what we are doing next. We recently partnered with our campus’s Center for Students in Recovery. We have an established relationship with Hyperpop Hell and they bring us out to all of their events. They have been so supportive of us and are currently helping us with a fundraising event.
EO: What do you envision for the future of your chapter?
AH: I really want to expand End Overdose’s outreach across Texas. End Overdose has such a large presence in the nightlife scene in LA and other places, and I want to continue this trend in Texas. However, I would also like to reach some other demographics as well. I also want to become a staple on UT Dallas campus.
*End Overdose's chapter program is vital to our success in equipping people with lifesaving education and resources. We trust young people in cities and on college campuses to spread the word through a true peer-to-peer model. With 50 chapters nationwide, members and volunteers are committing hours upon hours to End Overdose's cause, so we want to highlight a chapter every week*.