Default | NEWS

9/4/2009

From O-week to Outreach Day, community carries over
New students spent first weekend at Rice volunteering

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

Only two weeks into the school year and O-week is becoming a memory for the 904 first-year Rice students. For many of them, the feeling of being a newcomer has long since worn off: They are feeling right at home nestled in their residential colleges amongst the live oaks and chubby squirrels. Yet the camaraderie and spirit of O-week live on, and is particularly strong in the students who participated in Outreach Day, Aug. 22.

	JEFF FITLOW
	Students volunteered at Casa de Esperanza de los Ninos (the House of Hope for Children), which provides residential, medical and psychological care for children in crisis due to abuse, neglect or the effects of HIV.

"O-week established a strong community within our colleges, which I feel is key for our time at Rice," said Sachin Allahabadi, a first-year student at Sid Richardson College. "That similar concept of community and unity was carried over to Outreach Day. Once we learned how to have a community and support system, we were able to expand that into the city for others."

Allahabadi was one of about 450 new students who gave up a Saturday to perform service projects in Houston -- a city different from the Los Angeles suburb in which he grew up.

"It is one thing to read about or hear about hunger, homelessness and many other social problems, but it is another to actually go out in the city and experience it," he said. "It is empowering and really gets you thinking and wanting to help even more."

Rice students volunteered on 28 community projects contributing almost 1,900 service hours. Those hours are valued at more than $38,000, according to Independent Sector, a coalition of corporations, foundations and private voluntary organizations that works to strengthen America's nonprofits.

Allhabadi worked at Casa de Esperanza de los Ninos (the House of Hope for Children), which provides residential, medical and psychological care for children in crisis due to abuse, neglect or the effects of HIV.

Outreach Day plants seeds of service "Outreach Day is definitely an inspiration to help Houston more in the future while I'm here at Rice because the unity of so many Rice students was so exciting and the community service was enlightening." -- Sachin Allahabadi "I think Urban Immersion and the Outreach Day gave me an opportunity to see more clearly what direction of community service I want to go into, since I got a taste of many volunteering opportunities. I plan to get involved in the Rice Student Volunteer Program and participate in various community service projects, especially in education-related projects, such as Alternative Spring Break." -- Alona Bozhchenko "Outreach Day was a great way to meet more people from different colleges around Rice, and it opened me up to the volunteering opportunities available around Houston. It was a great end to O-week because after spending a week where we'd had nothing but fun -- which is a good thing -- it was nice to be able to give that sort of experience to someone else." -- Layo Obamehinti To watch other students talk about their Outreach Day experiences, visit http://www.youtube.com/RiceUniversityCIC.

"I had not realized how unfortunate of a situation a lot of these children had," he said. One child, he recalled, was silent the first few hours they were there and offered little to no nonverbal communication. Then slowly, she began talking, giggling and hugging.

"To see her so happy and finally feeling free was very motivational and it's inspiring to see that our presence meant something to the children," Allahabadi said.

Alona Bozhchenko, a Lovett College sophomore, also volunteered at Casa de Esperanza and had a similar experience. She first learned about Casa de Esperanza through the Urban Immersion program run by the Community Involvement Center (CIC). Bozhchenko was one of 46 new students selected to participate in the weeklong summer program aimed at introducing incoming Rice students to Houston and volunteer opportunities.

"Because of Urban Immersion, I had a general idea about all the projects for Outreach Day," Bozhchenko said. "When I met the kids for the first time during Urban Immersion, I thought they would be scared of strangers and not willing to open up because they have been hurt before. However, I was very surprised to see that the children were actually yearning for love and attention."

At the end of their day together, the children traced their handprints for the Rice students. They cut out two copies and wrote their names on them.

"The children got to keep one handprint, while we kept the other one so that we would always remember them," said Layo Obamehinti, a new student at Brown College.

Though she had volunteered regularly throughout high school, she didn't know where to begin upon starting college in Houston. Outreach Day proved to be her road map.

"Rice makes it very easy for any student who wants to get involved to do just that," she said. "Take Outreach Day -- the CIC compiled a list of organizations with descriptions for students to peruse; all we had to do was sign up for something we wanted to do, and we were set."

To help Rice students continue to walk a path of service, the CIC is hosting a Volunteer Opportunities Fair, 2-5 p.m. Sept. 14 in the Rice Memorial Center Grand Hall. Representatives from more than 40 local nonprofit agencies will talk about ways to get involved in their organizations.