Students Fight Back was developed as an extension of the Girls Fight Back program, which was born in direct response to the June 2001 murder of a dynamic, athletic, and loved college student named Shannon McNamara.  After Shannon’s death, her friend and sorority sister, Erin Weed, realized the need for practical and empowering options for learning violence prevention and self-defense. Inspired by the way Shannon fought her attacker, Erin immersed herself in training with the best violence prevention experts and self-defense trainers in the world and, from this, developed the GFB seminar, combining core values, a fun and empowering attitude, and the best safety and self-defense methods available.  Girls Fight Back has expanded to include 2 new programs that are Title IX Compliant: Students Fight Back and Fight Back on Spring Break.

Students Fight Back believes that through personal safety education and learning the basic techniques of physical self-defense that we can create confident, powerful people who are ready to take control of their lives.  Research has shown that people who learn self-defense are less likely to use it because they are more likely to stand up for themselves verbally and they are more confident in other areas of their lives.   Our program covers a wide variety of subjects and teaches people how to handle themselves in a variety of situations.  Through our educational seminars, Students Fight Back gives our audiences the power of choice.  If anyone is ever faced with a sketchy situation after our seminar, they now have tools in their tool box for how they will respond.  Knowledge is power and we want to empower the masses.

Erin Weed studied with violence prevention experts and world renowned self-defense instructors to create the core information for the program. With collaboration from professionals such as Gavin de Becker and Associates, government officials, local police departments and other experienced self-defense companies, Students Fight Back is constantly reevaluating our content to be relevant and accurate according to the latest information available.

Students Fight back ensures compliance with the requirements of the VAWA by educating women on tools and techniques to maximize their personal safety and learn what to do in a worst case scenario.  Our program covers topics such as: awareness tools, bystander intervention, verbal de-escalation strategies, resources, consent, alcohol & sexual assault, and physical self-defense strategies.  No one is ever responsible for a crime that was committed against them.  By giving students information and education on steps to be aware of their personal safety, techniques for conflict avoidance and finally, techniques on how to physically defend oneself, we are providing them with choices and options to fit their particular lifestyle.  Knowledge is the most powerful self-defense and personal safety tool.

Students Fight Back is a gender inclusive program that has been presenting on college campuses since 2001. Our seminar emphasizes the importance of students working together to end the cycle of violence through bystander intervention and personal safety education.  Everyone should know how to protect themselves and this program focuses on teaching these skills and techniques in a fun, gender inclusive and empowering way.

We have had several past audience members reach out to us after a seminar to share with us how they used our techniques in a personal encounter of their own.  Some of those encounters were attempted assaults and these  people were able to fight their way to safety using the self-defense tools they learned.  The verbal skills & strategies that we teach in our seminar are used regularly by attendees in both their personal and work lives.  Our hope is that no one ever has to use the physical techniques, but if they do, we want people to have options of how to respond and then the knowledge of what to do if they choose to fight back.