Nearly 500 UTEP Volunteers Serve at Annual Project MOVE
Students, staff, faculty, alumni and community partners participated at 20 sites across El Paso
EL PASO, Texas (April 8, 2024) – Nearly 500 volunteers associated with The University of Texas at El Paso dedicated their time and efforts on Saturday, April 6 to support the El Paso community during UTEP's annual Project MOVE (Miner Opportunities for Volunteer Experiences). Altogether, the group contributed close to 3,000 hours of service to the community.
“Project MOVE serves as a platform for UTEP to reaffirm its longstanding bond with the surrounding community while providing valuable learning experiences for volunteers,” said Jennifer Lujan, Project MOVE lead organizer and director of UTEP’s Center for Community Engagement. “By engaging in various tasks requested by our nonprofit community partners, the volunteers actively contributed to the wellbeing of people across our region.”
The volunteer corps, which consisted of University students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community partners participated in various tasks at 20 different job sites across El Paso. Their contributions included sorting, painting, cleaning, landscaping, refurbishing and fulfilling numerous other requests.
One of the projects on this year’s list was the spring cleanup and preparation of the Jardín at Bowie High School in South-Central El Paso. The vegetable garden is part of the school’s Jardín, Cocina y Mercado program that was established in 2015 as a platform for students, faculty and staff at Bowie, as well as members of the surrounding community, to learn more about the importance of food and where it comes from.
Luis Loweree, the school’s assistant principal, said the Bowie community is tremendously appreciative of the work done by UTEP volunteers.
“Our Jardín is a part of a big program – one with true community impact,” said Loweree. “As such, it also benefits from the community’s support, and today, UTEP students are making that contribution. Additionally, their presence on our campus provides a valuable opportunity for our students to see firsthand what UTEP is all about.”
Yaretzi Estrada, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, was among the UTEP students who, armed with wheelbarrows, rakes, shovels and various other gardening tools, collected dry grass, pulled weeds, and tilled and turned soil, leaving the garden ready for the spring planting season.
Having participated in community assistance projects since her days as a student at Coronado High School, Estrada said she enjoys doing work that helps others.
“It allows me to make connections with other people and with the community in a more general sense,” she said. “It also leaves me with a deep feeling of satisfaction.”
Since Project MOVE’s start in 2010, Miner volunteers have landscaped gardens, painted skate parks, fixed bicycles, organized food pantries, cleaned offices and arroyos, repaired homes and playground equipment, and built bed frames and websites. They have also made blankets for children and homes accessible for people with disabilities, spruced up a cemetery, repaired nature trails, taught golf and soccer, visited hospital patients, translated for medical students and collected canned and nonperishable food for the needy.
The University estimated the total value of the work to date at $1.4 million.
For more information about Project MOVE, please visit www.utep.edu/student-affairs/projectmove/.
About The University of Texas at El Paso
The University of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 24,000 students are Hispanic, and more than half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 172 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.
Last Updated on April 08, 2024 at 12:00 AM | Originally published April 08, 2024
By MC Staff UTEP Marketing and Communications
