6 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2023
THE RICE THRESHER
ASB groups ditch the beach, connect with community
JONAH SPOSITO
FOR THE THRESHER According to just about every college stereotype ever, spring break is associated with partying and hanging out on the beach. However, some Rice students spent their recent breaks a little differently. Some wrote policy briefs on mental health in migrant communities. Others volunteered at clinics for Vietnamese refugees or visited local arts organizations. These students all have one thing in common: they were a part of Rice’s Alternative Spring Break Program, which aims to work with community partners on a range of social issues. “I really appreciate the idea behind Alternative Spring Break, providing the means for exploring community activism,” Anisha Abraham, a Jones College sophomore who participated in ASB this year, said. The trips take students to cities near Rice to engage with various social issues. This year, eight ASB groups explored areas including Austin, San Antonio and New Orleans. Although the program takes place during spring break, planning for ASB begins as early as the previous spring. Last spring semester, pairs of site leaders pitched ideas that they were passionate about and, once approved, started designing these programs. “When I was developing the curriculum for the ASB, it was really important to me that what we were learning was applicable to any Rice student,” Bria Weisz, a recent ASB site leader, said.
“I’ve always wanted to adopt personally, and then I realized I really wanted to learn more about the system just because … people don’t know the nitty gritty of what’s happening,” Ibrahim, a Wiess College sophomore, said. “This [was] a great opportunity to learn more about it for me and I know [other] people will be passionate about it too.” Another group, led by Michelle Martinez and Denise Maldonado, was focused on exploring the current healthcare resources for recent immigrants in the U.S. They said they wanted their group to learn about public policy surrounding immigrant healthcare, and all the current barriers that exist legally, economically and systemically for immigrants. “We chose [to go to] New Orleans due to its unique status as a sanctuary city within the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals,” JENNIFER LIU / THRESHER Maldonado, a Lovett College senior, said. “The fifth circuit — comprised of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi — is notorious Weisz, a Brown College senior has always for its anti-immigration rulings.” While in Louisiana, Martinez and had interest in both visual and dramatic arts, specifically in equity within art spaces. Maldonado’s group volunteered with She proposed the topic as an ASB, later Catholic charities to help newly migrated titling the program “The Big Picture: Equity people get accustomed to everyday life. “The family that I personally worked and Accessibility in Art.” Months later, Weisz’s group traveled with was a Honduran family that just arrived in the U.S. 10 to San Antonio, days ago. We taught Dallas and Fort them how to use Worth to engage Google Maps, we with organizations downloaded Google working on The next time that they Translate on their increasing equity view art, they are going to phone, we walked in the arts. Among know all of the different through other community layers that go into making them Target and showed partners, the group them how to use met with a public that piece. self- checkout ,” art administrator Bria Weisz Martinez, a Hanszen about how spaces ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK SITE College senior, said. dedicated to art can “I thought that uplift communities LEADER was really helpful and later visited a for them but also really eye opening for all public art venue in San Antonio. “It was really to give the participants a of us, understanding the experience of a deeper understanding of their approach migrant — it’s a whole different system for to art, rather than just going into it as a them.” Martinez said that several members of viewer,” Weisz said. “The next time that they view art, they are going to know all of their group, including herself, said their the different layers that go into making that ASB trip strengthened their pre-existing connections or interests in migration work. piece.” “Whenever we were having our final Barakat Ibrahim, another site leader, said her group’s trip focused on the foster care reflection, the participants who were presystem in Houston and Louisiana. Her group law said that this made them more sure of nine students volunteered at donation that they want to study immigration law in centers, learned from community partners the future,” Maldonado said. “It [solidified] and even talked to a mother trying to regain those ideas that they had of going to law school.” custody of her kids after being arrested.
Do it yourself: Students talk designing area majors ADAM LEFF
FOR THE THRESHER Any prospective student flipping through Rice’s major offerings would miss Computer Science and the Arts — probably because it’s not listed. This specific program is an area major, a type of unique student-designed major made by students looking to forge their own curriculum. Bria Weisz said she created the Computer Science and the Arts major upon finding out that the curricula lacked adequate flexibility for her intended double majors, computer science and visual and dramatic arts. “I wanted the flexibility to take different classes and branch out,” Weisz, a Brown College senior, said. “I decided I wanted to make [Rice] work for me.” One of the main benefits of an area major, Weisz said, is the flexibility it affords students. In her case, it allowed
NDIDI NWOSU / THRESHER her to combine two very disparate majors into one more streamlined program, focusing on the aspects which interest her most. Alison Maniace, an area major studying Bioethics and Biotechnology, echoed this sentiment, saying that her area major allowed her academic career to make space for her developing interests.
“What I appreciate about my area major most is that it accommodated [the way that] my interests solidified in the later portion of my time at Rice and let me adapt my education to that,” Maniace, a Martel College senior, said. In order to pursue an area major, minor or certificate, Weisz said a student must gather tenured faculty advisors and then make a proposal to the Committee on the Undergraduate Curriculum. Jeffrey Fleisher, the chair of the CUC, said he typically meets with four or five prospective area majors a year, although generally only one or two students actually complete the area major proposal process. “What I tend to do with students who are thinking about an area major is ask them a lot of questions,” Fleisher said. “What are the things that interest them at Rice and why don’t those majors work?” This article has been cut for print. Read the full story at ricethresher.org.
Spotlights Read more online
AGNES HO JULIANA LIGHTSEY
FOR THE THRESHER
COURTESY AGNES HO Agnes Ho has two loves: sushi restaurants and genuine connections. The latter is one that she’s spent the past decade cultivating at Rice as director of the Wellbeing and Counseling Center.
EMILY HOULIK-RITCHEY NITHYA RAMCHARAN
FOR THE THRESHER
COURTESY RICE UNIVERSITY Wacky, crazy and terrifying. These words might evoke pictures of daredevils or precarious adventures but for Emily Houlik-Ritchey, an English professor at Rice, they point to something entirely different: medieval literature.
GRACE WALTERS LAUREN YU
THRESHER STAFF
KATHERINE HUI / THRESHER In 2019, the Scripps National Spelling Bee saw an unprecedented eight-way tie after the competition ran out of words. The person partially responsible for three of those eight wins was spelling bee coach Grace Walters.