[vc_row type=”” top_margin=”none”][vc_column type=”” top_margin=”none” width=”1/1″][vc_separator_pr style=”default” top_margin=”none”][vc_column_text css_animation=””]
Spring Break: Volunteering to help the elderly, families
Assisting the elderly and terminally ill, fixing meals, reading stories to children: It’s not the way most people imagine college students spending spring break. But that’s what a group of Jackson State University students did during their six days away from campus in March.
Twenty-eight students traveled to Atlanta as part of the Alternative Break program.
Eltease Moore, Jackson State University Community Service coordinator, said students spent time preparing meals at Project Open Hands, which assists the elderly and terminally ill receiving nursing care, and at Atlanta Mission, a transition home for women and children. They also assisted at Sheltering Arms, a day care center.
Asean Davis, 19, a freshman in civil engineering, plans to participate again. “It let me see how community service makes a difference. It enlightened me working with kids, because they pick up things so fast.”
James Griffin, 19, a sophomore in accounting, volunteered at a food bank.
“The variety of circumstances under which a person can need assistance was an eye-opener,” he said. “You don’t have to be living in a box to have a rough time.”
Previous Alternative breaks have included service work in Chicago, Washington, D.C., a Gullah Geechee community in South Carolina and in New Orleans’ ninth ward following Hurricane Katrina.
— Jim Ewing
Planting seeds: Jackson State University students competing in the Blueprint Mississippi Social Business Challenge at the state Capitol March 12 didn’t win an award, but they still plan to carry their idea to fruition.
Sierra Jackson, 20, and Javis Jones, 20, both junior business majors, want to start an on-campus organic farm run by students to provide food for the west Jackson community.
Dr. Ramin Maysami, dean of the JSU College of Business, commended the students for their perseverance. “It’s still a winning proposal,” Maysami said following the competition.
Broadcast awards: First-place winner WJSU-FM and mass communications’ TigerTV in the College of Liberal Arts Department earned 19 combined honors during the annual Mississippi Associated Press Broadcasters Awards April 18. NPR-affiliate WJSU received first place for its spot news coverage of the 2014 death of Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba.
Garnering 14 awards, the 24-hour news and jazz station was among top winners in professional and collegiate categories. Mass communications’ TigerTV received several second- and third-place honors.
Public comment: JSU students voiced issues at the March 25 Jackson City Council and April 20 Hinds County Board of Supervisors meetings on campus. Dr. Patricia Murrain, coordinator of Speech Studies, introduced students to the Council. LaTonya Curley, a fourth-year graduate student in Public Policy Administration, led the public comments session at the Hinds meeting. Jean Frazier, State Relations coordinator, organized both events.
CSET students judge science fair: A banner at the entrance of Blackburn Middle School reads: “Failure is not an option.” That didn’t appear to be a remote possibility, according to a dozen JSU students from the College of Science, Engineering and Technology who volunteered to judge the school’s science fair. Jamera Barnes, a second-grade science teacher and 2008 JSU alumna, hopes JSU students will turn their involvement, in its second year, into a tradition.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”” top_margin=”none”][vc_column type=”” top_margin=”none” width=”1/1″][/vc_column][/vc_row]