EL PASO COMMUNITY COLLEGE

SERVICE LEARNING PROGRAM

MAY, 2010 VOL # 1 ISSUE # 2

VISIT US AT:

Dnn.epcc.edu/servicelearningprogram

Or email at:

servicelearning@epcc.edu

SERVICE LEARNING PROGRAM

MAIN OFFICE

EPCC Valle Verde Campus

Room A1314

(915)831-2489

(915)831-2204

We are making a difference…!

In the semester of Spring 2010, 544 students participated in Service Learning completing a total of

13,080 hours of service

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FAN!!!

Just type El Paso Community College Service

Learning Program on your search box

EL PASO COMMUNITY COLLEGE:

It has been a busy time for everyone, but the semester is almost over

and summer is here! This past semester, the Service Learning Program had a

lot of wonderful students providing service in our community, rightfully

guided by great faculty members. Some of our projects included:

Our program and Campus Life were part of United Way’s Alternative

Spring Break

Movie Day at Franklin Heights Nursing Home

Volunteer Fair 2010 took place on Feb 17th @ Valle Verde Campus

Submission of a grant through the Learn and America to implement

service projects focusing on STEM majors.

Participated with Habitat for Humanity and their annual Collegiate

Challenge

Easter Hunt at The Reynolds House bringing a day of joy to the

residents there.

Service Learning Recognition and Reflection Session this past April

24th, culminating service on Global Youth Service Day.

Dia de los Niños at Child Crisis Center of El Paso, with the delivery

of over 500 collected items.

The project “Hat Society” delivered over 350 collected items to the

Green House Cancer Foundation.

Presence at our local Global Youth Service Day Celebration, April

25th , at Cleveland Park.

Help us keep up with the good work!

Patricia Islas,

Service learning Coordinator

These past couple of months, the Service Learning Program

has been pretty busy with many projects and fairs and what not. First

of all, on February, we had our VOLUNTEER FAIR in collaboration

with Campus Life. With over 15agencies from all over El Paso, this

fair was intended to promote service learning and volunteering. All

these wonderful agencies took a day off their busy schedules to come

to the Valle Verde Campus and answer any questions or doubts that

our students may have.

We also had students go to Franklin Heights Nursing Home

every Monday to take the residents a “movie theater” like experience.

They seemed happy and thrilled to have youth come to them, watch a

movie and listen to their stories.

For the first time, our program in cooperation with Campus

Life, joined United Way and participated in the Alternative Spring

Break Program here in our Sun City. During this very expected week,

we had a total of 18 students that decided to trade their party time and

swim suits; for hammers, nail guns and all sorts of construction tools

to help built a house for low income families in our community

(Horizon). Students from Arizona State University, El Paso

Community College, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University,

and the University of Texas at El Paso worked on this house for a

week and were staying at a local church. These students were all

strangers at first, but the bonds they created in this short period of time

will last a life time.

At the same time, in a different side of town, our local

chapter of Habitat for Humanity was performing their annual

Collegiate Challenge. They had students from Massachusetts College

of Art, Bethel College, Air Force Academy and Marymount

Manhattan College. Each of these colleges were here in El Paso for a

week to help build a house in San Elizario. After long days of hard

work, once they got back to the place where they were staying, the

Service Learning Program students brought them a little fun with

Mexican food and treats and Karaoke system to sing and recharge

batteries, while sampling our local culture.

EVENTS

EPCC was proud to have 4 students participate in this

year’s Alternative Spring Break, all of which report to have had

the time of their lives. Andrew Avila and Cesar Alvarado shared

with us that they build a house, found out they are pretty good

communicators, they love to help and for Cesar, it even shows

him a foreseeable career path.

Andrew (left) shared with us a poem he wrote and I

believe it sums up perfectly their feelings about service.

I expected to lend a hand but after that week

I left a better man which was never the plan.

I met a group of people that I refuse to forget,

and with that said I made friendships that I’ll never regret. The

food was one of a kind,

if I said it wasn't of the best I’d be lying.

We helped build a house from the ground up, we helped these

families call a place home, like I said before the feeling of thanks

this big was never known.

These families have now a home they own, into the concrete,

walls, and nails their hearts are sewn.

One of the best weeks of my life that was not at all blown.

- Andrew Avila

We closed off a great year of service with the “Reflection

and Recognition Session”. On April 24th, we gathered students and

faculty that participated in Service Learning during the academic

year 2009-2010. During the first hour; Ms. Patricia Islas, Service

Learning Coordinator, gave a brief speech highlighting the

greatest accomplishments in the year and opening the reflection

session. The students were broken into focus groups, each one

with a facilitator, and each group had enough time to reflect on

their experiences.

After the reflection part of the ceremony was over, Dr.

Richard Rhodes and Mr. Claude Mathis joined us, and the

recognition part begun. We handed appreciation certificates to our

present students, faculty and community partners.

We also want to give special recognition to the following students

that went above and beyond in helping our community:

Peter Johnson completed a total of 288 hours of service. Velia

Ocon 256. Susan Lane 179.

After the ceremony, there was an Ice cream Social and cake for all

our guests. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did, and if you

were not able to attend, we cannot wait to see you there next year!

During the spring semester, another great group of EPCC

students developed a campaign to collect as many items as they

could, with the Hat Society. Students strived to collect hats,

scarves, caps, earrings, and items for people that have or are going

through cancer and chemotherapy. May 5th, they took the entire

goods collected o the Green House Cancer Foundation. As it turns

out, they had over 350 items to give to the foundation.

All these hats, scarves and hats will go to the patients that need

them to feel better and prettier.

May started with a full load. On the 1st, a group of EPCC

students collected items for the Child Crisis Center of El Paso and

delivered them. Along with a “Dia del Niño” celebration for the

residents there and a day full of fun.

The Child Crisis Center of El Paso is an emergency shelter for

children from infancy to 13 years of age, and Family support services.

Students had over 500 items to donate including but not limited to:

diapers, wipe towels, baby and children clothes, toys, canned food,

cleaning items, etc. Following the arrival, students cleaned up the

facilities and helped organize and arrange all the clothing items the

center has.

For the cook out, students prepared hamburgers and hot dogs for the

children. They also handed out chips, juices, doughnuts, and ice-cream

treats.

After the kids were done eating, they all headed to the playground,

where students, staff and the children got to play many different games

and practice sports.

We meet again! On this second

issue, I want to stress the great work that our students,

staff and faculty have accomplished in the semester.

We managed to help a wide variety of industry sectors;

from nursing homes and health clinics, to our local

Habitat for Humanity Chapter and the International

Boundary and Water Commission. Plus all of our

community partners are grateful of the service

provided and gave us wonderful feedback.

On a more personal note, these past months

have been great. Joined the Young Leaders Society of

El Paso – UW which has given me the opportunity to

network with awesome young professionals here in the

city and with many people like Senator Shapleigh and

our Mayor John Cook!

Also, we had the honor to participate in the MDA

Stride and Ride Walk and painted a brand new Mini

Cooper like a tennis shoe, which was a lot of fun.

United Way’s Global Youth Service Day Celebration

was another event that we were able to attend and

helped recognize our youth in service!

Last, but certainly not least, I was fortunate to be a

guest speaker for YWCA “You got served” event at

Ysleta High School. The purpose of this event was to

inform students in their freshman year of High school

about volunteering, the importance of it and how easy

it can be performed. It was a very good experience and

we reached over 300 teenagers!

And this is nothing but barely starting! On

June, we will be participating in the Relay for Life

event at the Outlet Shopppes of El Paso to fundraise

for the American Cancer Society, if you are interested,

contact me or log onto

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=270

68 and get more information.

We will be offering Service Learning in the

summer. More projects are being created, we will keep

you posted.

With nothing more for now…Thank you for reading

our newsletter and we hope you get involved!

Marta P. Ramos

Mramos20v@epcc.edu

(915)831-2204

ENGAGED SCHOLAR

This time Roswitha Saenz was kind enough to give us a little time from

her busy schedule and granted us an interview. Dr. Saenz was born and raised in

Germany, and moved to the United States 30 years ago. She went to the Medical

School of Frankfurt in Germany and she got her degree in Human Medicine. Back

in 1987, she started as a part-time instructor here at EPCC, but she has been a full

time faculty member for 12 years.

Dr. Saenz is an avid advocate for service learning. She presents Service

learning in her classes’ syllabus as an excellent opportunity to apply theoretical

knowledge. Most of her students opt to do service learning and she is the instructor

with the highest amount of students participating in our program every semester.

She encourages students to learn outside the classroom.

Teaching by example, Dr. Saenz is an active church member and serves

as a judge in science’s fairs all over the El Paso area. She participates in activities

related to health but also communication and music. Dr. Saenz is also a music

composer and singer and uses her talents in different ways. She sings in several

events such as the Christmas celebrations for the Senior Adult Program with Mary

Yanez. She edits music and converts it from cassettes to compact discs and

collaborates with Dr. Carl Smith and the El Paso City Chorus in doing so. She is a

50-years experienced baker and uses her skills to bake, donate for non-profit

organizations, churches and EPCC. She also advocated about good health on

radio. Sunday, May 2nd, she talked about women’s health in 1060-AM on a show

called “Dios te Ama” where she has participated previously discussing different

health issues. She actively participated in our past Dame La Mano Thanksgiving

Lunch.

In addition, Dr. Roswitha Saenz is also part of several committees in the

Health Department. She participates in the R.I.S.E. Program (Research Initiative

for Scientific Enhancement), which provides students with the tools to succeed in

college, transfer to a four-year university, and pursue a biomedical research career

and a Ph.D.

Bonus Fact: Dr. Saenz is trilingual on a daily basis.

She speaks German at home, Spanish at church and English at the college.

AMERICOPS VISTA

Column

Midyear temperature check

Roswitha Saenz MD.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

AmeriCorps VISTA is having its annual week of

service and to honor that, we will have information

tables coming to your campus to let you know how you

can join and gain the unmemorable experiences.

For further information, please contact Marta P. Ramos

at (915) 831-2204.

USEFUL LINKS These links are web pages with lots

of opportunities to volunteer locally

and all over the globe. You can also

sign up to get recognition for your

service or even get resources to

conduct a project on your own!

www.texascampuscompact.org

www.geturgoodon.org

www.dosomething.org

www.YSA.org

www.servicelearning.org

www.youthlink.org

www.GYSD.org

www.volunteermatch.org

www.serve.gov

www.vistacampus.org

These events offer you an opportunity to give back to the community and have fun at the same time! For

further information, call the agency or call the Service Learning office.

June .06/04 – Relay for Life at Outlet Shoppes of El Paso with the American Cancer Society

.06/06 – National Cancer Survivors Day with Candlelighters of El Paso

.06/13 – Bike Run with Candlelighters of El Paso

.06/18 – Father’s Day Dance – Fundraiser with Candlelighters of El Paso

CAMPUS COMPACT RESOURCES

Books & Publications: Get Looking In, Reaching Out, By Barbara Jacoby and Pamela Mutascio.

A must have book for service learning professionals!

Recruitment: New York Campus Compact has opened recruitment for 14 AmeriCorps VISTA

positions across New York State. Available positions are posted on our website, and applications can

be accessed through My AmeriCorps. Please forward to potential applicants.

Conferences: Texas Campus Compact Presents the Summer Community Service Learning

Professional’s Conference, featuring keynote speaker Maureen Curley, National CEO of Campus

Compact. For more information visit www.texascampuscompact.org.

SUMMER I

-Applications: before June 25th

-Timesheets: before June 25th

-Reflection Session: Wed, June 30th

.

ASC Board Room

SUMMER II

- Applications: before July 30th

-Timesheets: before July 30th

-Reflection Session: Wed, August 4th

.

Location TBA

Dates to keep in mind!