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Julie Myers, CEO of OneLove Foundation, Emphasizes Relationship Behavioral Awareness at Upperclassmen EBI

As part of her presentation, Julie Myers displayed the ten signs of both healthy and unhealthy relationships.

Founded in response to the tragic murder of Yeardley Love, a University of Virginia lacrosse player, by her ex-boyfriend, the OneLove Foundation’s mission is to educate students about the importance and key components of healthy relationships. Julie Myers, CEO of OneLove Foundation, delivered a speech on the signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships last Friday during upperclassmen’s winter Empathy, Balance, and Inclusion (EBI).

During her talk, Myers, Love’s former coach, stressed the need for ongoing communication about relationships to help everyone work toward building healthier and safer connections. The presentation focused on the importance of recognizing signs of unsafe behaviors.

“Be accountable. It’s probably the biggest thing. If you are doing something in a relationship, friendship, intimate partner, teammate, wherever, if you are bringing negative behavior or unhealthy behavior, make sure that you own it. Don’t give them an excuse, don’t blame it on a game, don’t blame it on not getting sleep. Please don’t give bad behaviors an excuse because then you will never stop those bad behaviors,” said Myers during her presentation.

Myers continued, “Everyone in this room is competitive at a pretty significant level, but just remember compete in a classroom, compete on a field, in a pool where you are, compete with your instrument, but relationships are not competitive. There should not be a dominant in the relationship. Not in a friendship, not in an intimate partner… Nobody should think they’re better, stronger, more important.” 

During her talk, Myers used videos to show examples of relationship abuse and provided a list of ten characteristics of healthy versus unhealthy relationships, pointing out how physical abuse is not the only way a relationship can be harmful. Sam Clare ’25 noted that the talk, though not particularly novel, served as a reminder that unhealthy relationships can take on many forms.

“It’s a really good reminder, especially considering someone in [Myers’s] experience with Yeardley. No one saw and recognized the signs, so just being aware that it might not always be obvious, looking out for people, and knowing what to notice is important. There’s often a really specific image of what an abusive relationship looks like, but it’s not always that… Everything was clear, and it had a nice structure of walking everyone through and it wasn’t too intense to listen to,” said Clare.

Myers also played a video called “Because I Love You,” demonstrating how initially innocuous behaviors can evolve into sinister and controlling actions, ultimately making the relationship toxic. Denys Tereshchenko ’26 reflected on the video’s message, noting that it highlighted the importance of looking out for others.

“People who are potentially capable of being affected should be wary, but also people who can prevent [relationship abuse]. I recognize that I am at a lower risk than many people and it’s my responsibility, partially, to try to see these negative things growing out. As Mrs. Myers said, there are always some small negative things. We have to shut them off early and we have to prevent them from turning into big tragedies. It is also my responsibility to do it for the people that I care about,” said Tereshchenko.

Although she acknowledged the utility of having conversations on toxic relationships, Tasha Bohorad ’26 mentioned that the information shared during the presentation could have more effectively benefited younger students.

“The content is very important, but I don’t think the quality of the content was something that especially Uppers and Seniors needed to hear. This could have been targeted at people who don’t have as much practice building relationships. Not that relationships and unhealthy relationships aren’t a serious topic, but the quality of the content could have been targeted towards a younger audience,” said Bohorad.