Students partner with Houston ministry for fall festival
Duc-Ahn Nguyen, a Wiess College senior, helps prepare children for the festival’s sack race.
Courtesy Aman Chaudhary
Psychology students at Rice held a fall festival for refugees at Rice’s Welcome Center and Founder’s Court Nov. 23. The event was held in collaboration with the Center for Civic Leadership and Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, a non-profit organization helping refugee families with their new lives.
Over 70 families attended, and the event provided food and activities for children such as face painting, henna, an egg race and an archery station. The students involved held this event as part of their multicultural psychology class’ civic learning project, taught by Chase Lesane-Brown, a lecturer in the psychological sciences department.
According to Lesane-Brown, the class provides hands-on engagement with demographics they are learning about, and she provided students with a variety of civic engagement opportunities, one of which was with the IMGH.
“I think it’s really important for the students, if they are going to read about different groups, that they actually have an opportunity to work with and experience those groups because a lot of times what you read in textbooks isn’t the same as what you actually experience when you’re working with people,” Lesane-Brown said.
The CCL funded the food and transportation provided for the event.
“Without the CCL, we could not have done this,” Lesane-Brown said. “They helped provide the funding for us. They helped with a lot of the logistics, because, of course, we have to make sure that, we’re protecting kids while we’re here.”
Students assisted in logistics and planning for this event, such as providing transportation for the families to get to Rice.
Aman Chaudhary, who focused on the logistical planning for the event, said that the event was held the weekend before Thanksgiving to provide attendees with entertainment and company going into the holiday season.
“All the families here are refugee families, and so because oftentimes they’re far from their families, we thought it might be nice to throw this fall festival, just so that they get a sense of community and they get to celebrate,” Chaudhary, a Wiess College junior, said.
Chaudhary also assisted in taking family portraits at the event. Rohit Jha, another student working on the IMGH event, said that many refugees not having family photos was something that struck him deeply.
“I think that really stood out to me because my home was covered in photos, they were one of the main things that created my home,” Jha, a Martel College senior, said. “It’s kind of just a small thing, but [it] informed me about the realities of the situation that they’re facing.”
Jha helped give campus tours to refugee families.
“I thought it was important to, one, just give them a tour of the Rice campus, because I think it’s really pretty,” Jha said. “But two, it was really cool to tell them, ‘This is something that you could achieve if you wanted to, if this is something you want to do.’And a lot of people were like, ‘Wow, I really hope my kid gets in here.’”
For Chaudhary, he said the positive energy of the community made the event a success.
“Creating a welcoming and warming environment is kind of why I came to Rice in the first place,” Chaudhary said. “Being able to create that for a whole other community … it just blew me away.”
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