TAMIU Annual Report 2018

2018 Annual Report / IMPACT Students Create BIG Impact During The Big Event Four hours. It’s the average approximate Super Bowl watch time and the average daily time spent using media like computers, tablets and smartphones. But for a group of 350 TAMIU students, four hours spent at the Santo Niño neighborhood equated 1,400 community service hours, generating an in-kind monetary impact of $30,800. This year, student volunteers representing six countries and all student classifications participated in The Big Event. Held March 24, the annual community service initiative is a dedicated effort for universities to serve their communities. TAMIU projects included graffiti removal, house painting, a mulch project, park restoration and pet vaccinations. In total, 2,300 residents benefited with four yards cleaned, eight houses painted, 150 animals vaccinated and 21.79 tons of trash picked up. Mayra Hernández, director of TAMIU’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Engagement, lauded the tremendous impact students made in such a short time span. “It’s an exciting opportunity. TAMIU students want to ‘pay it forward’ -- to become effective leaders, responsible constituents and serve their community.  They believe it’s a shared obligation to give back to a community that has given them so much,” Hernández said. The Big Event began at Texas A&M University in College Station in 1982. Since its inception at TAMIU in 2010, students have generated more than $4 million in equivalent economic impact and more than 220,000 total service hours. Meadows Foundation Awards $150,000 Grant TAMIU will continue to strengthen its coordinated and integrated healthcare delivery network in Laredo, Jim Hogg and Zapata counties thanks to a $150,000 continuation grant the Meadows Foundation awarded to The Texas A&M University System. The Grant supports the Sí Texas Juntos for Better Health Grant administered by TAMIU’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences’Dr. F. M. Canseco School of Nursing dean Dr. GlendaWalker, grant principal investigator. “This Grant fromThe Meadows Foundation provides vital support to help to continue to realize our Sí Texas - Juntos for Better Health Grant objectives through a linked constellation of education, outreach and services,” Dr. Walker said.  She said the program operates through an approach featuring comprehensive healthcare and patient engagement. “We also deploy a Traveling Health Care Team (THCT), a critical community outreach initiative that emphasizes primary screening and links to a medical home or mental health services,” Walker explained. 17