Addressing humanitarian crisis - The Rider Newspaper

_{Biology freshmen Karla Mora (from left), Illanely De Los Santos and Rosemary Luna help prepare about 750 adult hygiene kits. They are students in Lecturer Erika Perez’s Learning Framework class who are participating in the Adult Hygiene Kits project as part of their service learning. Isabel Morales/THE RIDER}

A learning framework lecturer has partnered with River Ministry, 13:2 Initiative and Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) at UTRGV to assemble 750 kits as part of an Adult Hygiene Kits Project.

Erika Perez, a lecturer in the University College, said her learning framework students have been conducting service learning projects throughout the semester.

“[It’s] all about connecting them with community agencies that have a need and, as students, responding to that need,” Perez said. “So they serve at the community agency. They provide nine hours of service hours to that community agency, and then they go about reflecting and conducting other assignments as part of the service learning project.”

She said it is important for students who are moving from a high school to a college environment to build connections and feel empowered and prepared to be future young professionals in their field.

“If I have a student who is a first year student and wants to one day be in the health professions career, I would like for them to start thinking early about that and thinking, ‘What are some community agencies that I can connect to that match my career interests that will help build my experience in that field?,’” Perez said. “So not only does it raise civic engagement and civic responsibility for the student, but also helps them align better to their career match that they’re trying to look for. So it serves various purposes as part of that project.”

Perez said students assemble the kits at the BSM Global Blends Deli across from the University Recreation Center on the Edinburg campus.

“So it started with [BSM] having a need,” she said. “They didn’t have the staff for it, but I had a class and we all went to the BSM and assembled all those kits.”

Frances Doria, BSM associate director, said this is the first time the organization has partnered with learning framework students to work on the hygiene kits.

“Our mission is to show God’s love to students, so that is one way we’re doing that,” Doria said. “And we know that there’s a lot of need in the community, a lot of need with students. Just being there for the community and providing them with resources they need.”

She said BSM is thankful to be able to partner with UTRGV because they want to walk students through their college journey.

The Office of Engaged Scholarship and Learning Office provided Perez’s class with the items for the project this semester, Perez said.

“So we have the River Ministry and 13:2 Initiative, who are a coalition of organizations along the border who are trying to meet the urgent needs of the humanitarian crisis, and one of the questions that I asked was, ‘What’s the main need at the border?’,” she said. “And they said hygiene. So, you have people who are traveling from Guatemala, from Mexico, sometimes all parts of the world, who are coming and joining us at the border. And a lot of the time, they’re not bringing a big backpack or all their stuff.”

The hygiene kits contain shampoo, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a bar of soap and deodorant.

“So then, I connected a team of my students who want to be health care professionals [with the project] so that team is the one that assembled the adult hygiene kits because it matches and aligns with their career field,” Perez said. “And then also it meets the needs of our border. And there’s impact not only for the students who are assembling it, but for the people that are going to be benefiting from the kit.”

With donations from the Office of Engaged Scholarship and Learning, students will be able to assemble 700 kits next semester, she said.

“I think one thing that is important that we’re doing through this project is to empower young professionals to jump-start a lifetime of service,” Perez said. “And that is what we’re doing through this project. … If we can generate that mindset through this project early on in the semester, I can only imagine what they’ll do in the sophomore year. Like, maybe they’ll go back and serve. … So it really widens their opportunity and experiences that they can have on campus. So, hopefully, that’s also another opportunity for them to enrich their student life … while they’re here at UTRGV.”