UTEP Social Work Hosts Rice University Students for Alternative Spring Break
In mid-March, a group of UTEP Social Work professors and alumni opted to spend part of their spring break with students from Rice University who were participating in an intensive service-learning experience organized by Rice called “Alternative Spring Break,” (ASB). The ASB program aims to engage Rice students with new communities through education, service and advocacy. Participating students raise funds to support themselves as they complete the mission. The theme for the 2019 session, “Head above Water,” challenged students specifically in the area of water justice, and took the students on a journey across Santa Fe, Albuquerque and El Paso.
Dr. Eva Moya, associate professor of Social Work, and Dr. Silvia Chavez-Baray, lecturer for Social Work, hosted the group of 12 Rice students during their stop in El Paso. The professors drove them to the colonia of Sunland Park, New Mexico and then through El Paso to the community of San Elizario, Texas on the outskirts of El Paso’s Far East side. While there, Dr. Moya introduced them to Maria Covernali, executive director for Familias Triunfadoras, a not for profit agency offering services to local women and their families. Ms. Covernali shared the agency’s history with the students, explaining how it began nearly 30 years ago as a grassroots organizing movement aiming to bring running water and other services to the community.
As part of their visit in San Elizario, students were also invited into the home of a family who are living without any city services, and who purchase gallon-sized jugs of water from a neighbor every two to three days for drinking and cooking. The students were initially shocked by the living conditions of the family, but ultimately indicated how it brought to light the plight of the families in the community, and underscored the need for continued community organizing and capacity building in the area.
“The home visit led to a lot of reflection on our privilege and how we can use our platforms for advocacy,” said Ivan Hurtado, ASB participant.
The students ended their day in San Elizario with a trip to Lorenzo G. Alarcon Elementary school, where they read to first-graders, asked them about their dreams for the future, and showed them on the school maps where Rice University is located.
“We are hopeful for what the future holds in store for the students. The passion that the teachers and administrators had for education and the youth in their community was wonderful to see, and we feel very lucky to have gotten some insight into the struggles that both teachers and students face in their community,” Hurtado said.
During their trip to El Paso, students also visited with shelter directors at the Opportunity Center for the Homeless as well as Dr. Bert Johansson, a pediatric emergency physician at El Paso Children’s Hospital, who shared how water-related issues directly impact health outcomes in the patients the hospital serves.
Dr. Moya shared how the visit with the students benefited her as an academic and professional social worker. “The visit with this wonderful group of students really helped to put all of my work in perspective. I was able to show them just how incredible life on the border really is, and help expand their understanding of social justice by sharing the work that is being done in our community,” she said.
In the future, the students plan to continue their education and find opportunities to continue engaging in social justice initiatives, and have specifically mentioned working with nonprofits in Houston. Hurtado and fellow ASB participant, Mitra Mirpour, have also created a blog memorializing their ASB experience. Mirpour’s final reflection summarizes the group’s aspirations well: “Water is life and it is connected to everything, but there is a lot more at stake than just water. We are inspired by this trip to hope, feel and act – hope for a better future; feel, because that’s what makes us human; and perform even the smallest acts of change,” she wrote.
The Rice University ASB 2019 blog can be accessed here: https://sites.google.com/view/headabovewater/home?authuser=1