TAMIU’s ‘Big Event’ Created Big Impact

The numbers are in, and Texas A&M International University’s Big Event, held at the end of March, will be one for the record books. 

Mayra Hernández, director of TAMIU’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Engagement, said the service event in the Santo Nino neighborhood involved 350 volunteers in 1400 service hours with an in-kind monetary impact of $30,800.

“We’re proud of our students’ collective service to the community and our strong collaboration with the City of Laredo which provided enormous support and resources.  We’ve been able to analyze our impact and we are convinced we’ve helped to reinforce, the BIG in Big Event,” Hernández said.

She noted that in the compressed four-hour service schedule the students’  projects included clean-up, graffiti removal, house painting, a mulch project, park restoration and pet vaccination.

All told, 2300 residents benefited with four yards cleaned up, eight houses painted, 150 animals vaccinated and 21.79 tons of trash picked up. 

The TAMIU students, representing six countries and all student classifications, became the latest legacy-holders of the University’s annual tradition, which began in 2010 and has become its largest student engagement event.

The Big Event began at Texas A&M University in College Station in 1982,  and has since been adopted by dozens of universities, serving communities across the nation. It has also become a global phenomenon with events in Germany, Italy, Pakistan and Spain, among others.

Hernández said TAMIU’s The Big Event gives  students a chance to give back to the community they call home.

“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 is a shared obligation to give back to a community that has given them so much,” she concluded.

TAMIU students’ remarkable level of community engagement service, estimated to have generated more than $4 million in economic impact and  more than 220,000 total service hours since 2010, has twice earned the Presidential Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll Award for exemplary community service programs and partnerships. 

Visit a dedicated site documenting The Big Event at TAMIU through the years at  http://www.tamiu.edu/scce/tbe.shtml

For additional information, contact  the Office of Student Conduct and Community Engagement at 956.326.2265, email scce@tamiu.edu or visit offices in the Student Center, Suite 226.