This past Saturday morning, the Nursing First-Year Interest Group (FIG) piled onto the Metro-North in hopes of a mind-opening experience at the Museum of Sex in Manhattan. As Pace students wandered through an array of displays at the museum, giggles, gasps, and astonishment could not be held back.

“Especially targeted to Nursing majors, to be outside of the hospital and still talk about these topics is very important,” Abigail Smith, who worked with Gianna Pannullo on planning the trip, explained. “Especially for first-years coming into college. The museum had a variety of things from people to animals, as a way to normalize sex and gender.”

“I thought it would be different than the typical FIG trip and I just thought it would be fun,” Pannullo added.

Pannullo appeared to be right, as students enjoyed a plethora of displays and events at the museum, such as the variety of dildos and the “Jump for Joy,” a bouncy castle of breasts.

For some, walking into a room full of pictures displaying half-naked bodies bound in rope was enlightening.

“It’s a whole new way of looking at the human body,” Devon Verma, a first-year Computer Networking major, recalled after leaving the museum. “There’s a lot that you could do with it. It’s rather intriguing.”

Others were baffled by the racy displays.

“I’m still processing it,” Mina Celestin, a first-year Nursing major, stated.

All students agreed that the trip to the Museum of Sex was a good way to spend their Saturday afternoon.

“I feel like it’s a good way to get used to the human body,” Alyssa Monty, a first-year nursing student, elucidated. “With patients, if you’re not used to seeing naked bodies you might have a lot of trouble with it at first. The museum was really interesting. There were a lot of new things that I hadn’t seen before, but I really enjoyed it.”