Scholar Category: Homelessness/Poverty
Nicollette Laroco
Nancy Garcia
Miranda Johnson
Project: My Puksta Project for the upcoming academic youth is called RECIPROCITY, which stands for Reciprocating Progress in the City. The pilot program will involve CU Denver Mentors collaborating with Denver High School students. The mentors will be providing their students with opportunity, community and a sense of importance. It is through new found confidence that our youth will feel empowered to be young leaders themselves. By experiencing service learning and activities outside of the classroom eventually our youth will have the resources to return home to awaken their communities and address the deep and personal roots of their neighborhoods social inequalities.
Inspiration: My inspiration stems from wishing that I had a personal, one-on-one mentor as I was entering into high school and college. Every kid deserves a mentor that inspires them and acts as a resource of support and trust. Unfortunately, not every child has such a guiding individual in their lives due to circumstances at home, issues in their community or simply not having the available resources. I hope my Puksta Project can change that. Even if the impact is small at first, I believe it has the potential to grow and reach more kids each and every year.
Future Plans for Project: In this civic engagement work, I hope to impact the lives of our youth. I want them to walk away from my program knowing that they are capable of social change.
Kiri Michell
Project: Food insecurity is a major issue around the country that is often overlooked within the college population. I am addressing this issue as it relates to the CSU campus and the students and staff who are affected. The transition from dorm life to apartments can be challenging and therefore I am providing healthy and fresh food to students as well as resources to preparing and understanding what they are eating. I have been addressing the issue by installing for a “Freedge” in the on-campus apartments. Freedge comes from the combination of the words free and fridge and is based on the idea of free produce for anyone who needs fresh produce. In the apartments, there are fridges in the main lobby that are filled with fresh, organic, and local veggies grown from the Horticulture center on campus.
Inspiration: Volunteering in the community at food banks, rescue missions, and childcare settings have inspired me to focus on food insecurity. I noticed some of my peers struggling with food insecurity and I wanted to be able to provide a resource so they have less stress when it comes to one of the basic needs in life. There are no specific food resources for students so I wanted to provide a service for students who may be struggling. In addition, organic and local produce is usually expensive which causes students to shy away and buy something not as nourishing which can hinder their studies and social lives.
Future Plans for Project: Providing students with access to free, organic, and local produce and offering cooking classes and workshops are my main goals. Ideally, I would like to expand the Freedges to other places on campus to allow for more access from other students who may be struggling. Food is a simple, but overlooked necessity, and I hope to make an impact towards combating food insecurity on campus.
Dalko Jeri Flores
Project: Working to provide guidance, tutoring, and support to students from low-income households, especially on classes focused on STEM. “I Have a Dream” Foundation is an organization that works in the Boulder Valley community. This is an outstanding
organization to partner with and commit to their mission to transform lives through education, especially the lives of our youth.
Inspiration: Education is the key to innovation and development. Our society needs that.
I am one of the lucky ones to have college accessibility thanks to grants and scholarships like Puksta.
I wish I would have had access to similar programs like the “I Have a Dream” Foundation. Programs that can make the transition to higher education easier. I think that I am privileged to be in certain circumstances, so I want to share this with our local community.
“Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look at new worlds, to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.” -USAF Col Onizuka
Future Plans: Provide guidance, mentorship, and support to students of similar backgrounds based on personal experiences in college. College life can get challenging, and I’d love to be a part of making the life of even one student easier.
Helina Zemede
Project: My Project for this year will be to construct an online platform that efficiently depicts the resources available for the homeless/impoverished community and helps them utilize these resources by making them more accessible.
Inspiration: The rising number of the homeless population as well as the wealth gap that continues to grow in this country.
Future Plans for Project: I hope to be able to provide resources so that the homeless and impoverished population will be able to permanently improve their lives. I hope my work will aid in permanent housing, job assistance, and adequate health resources.
