Honors Program Volunteering to Renovate a House for PATH

By BRYNNA WILLIAMSON/Managing Editor

Every man is an island. But no man should be.

The UT Tyler Honors Program, headed by Dr. Paul Streufert and Laura Grace Dykes, plans to combat what can be a very self-centric outlook.

“The world is built now, I think, for people to not talk to each other, and to just sort of do their own thing,” said Streufert, the director of the Honors Program. “And I think that that’s not always great.”

Sophomores in the Honors Program do hands-on volunteer work to further explore a topic covered in class. Katie Stone, a previous Honors Program coordinator, came up with the learning strategy, Streufert said.  

The program requires students to spend the fall semester and the first half of the spring semester discussing “Evicted,” a book by Matthew Desmond about the failure of the housing industry to account for deep poverty.

 

After reading the book, students will volunteer with People Attempting to Help (PATH), a Tyler-based charity with outreach programs. Here, the students will renovate a home for those in need of help.

“With PATH… [we get to] put our hands on something practical that we learned about theoretically,” Streufert said. “So read the book, then we do the work. And… personally I just think it’s more meaningful to do it that way.”

The students will be heading out to the house on Saturday, April 9, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

According to Michael Vasquez, Emergency Services Operations manager, students will be painting, putting painter’s tape around edges, pulling up carpet, or laying laminate flooring. If any student doesn’t feel comfortable doing an activity, Vasquez says that another place can be found for them to help.

PATH, which began as a food “pantry” out of the back of one woman’s kitchen, has expanded greatly since its official inception in 1985.

Today, the largely-volunteer organization does much more than giving out food (although this is still part of their charity): now, it also has dental, prescription, rent, utilities, housing, and vision assistance programs.

The housing for PATH is not given away without review. Because they only have 52 homes to rent out, PATH has a waiting list for those low-income families whose earnings are “less than 80 percent of median income.”

During the program, tenants are in an ongoing “guidance and support” system wherein they have weekly meetings to foster goals, developments, and plans of action with the end goal of homeownership.

While the renovation of a house may seem difficult or scary, not only those with special skills are helpful for PATH’s efforts, Vasquez said. Anyone with any amount of time, money, or effort is appreciated.

Elaina Gonzalez, a sophomore English major, admits that when she heard about the project, she was slightly nervous due to her lack of renovation expertise.

However, “after we talked about it in class, and we started talking about how, like, most people don’t have that experience, and [how the PATH staff members are] really patient and good about teaching what to do, I wasn’t as nervous,” she said.

Streufert assured the students that the service day is nothing to worry about: “It’s super easy, you just have to try it,” he said. “[There’s] no way to mess it up.”

The motivation for the Honors Program introducing students to PATH is multitiered.

Many students don’t know anything about PATH, and Streufert hopes to introduce them to the organization so that “somebody will say ‘hey, I have a heart for service; maybe I’ll do more for PATH.’ Maybe it could set someone on a career path, even!”

“Maybe someone will say ‘I’d like to volunteer for PATH on a regular basis,’ or ‘I’d like to know more about how I can help people with home insecurity,’ or maybe, ‘A life of service or working for a nonprofit is a way that I would like to live my life.’ Maybe we are providing that for students,” he said.

Streufert also hopes the serving day will spur on friendships, fun, and conversations rarely heard inside a classroom. To him, volunteering is more fun if one can do it with others. This way, he says, people get to know one another in a different setting and perhaps even in a different light than they would on campus.

“It gives you a moment to be together [with people] with the good feeling of doing physical work for other people,” Streufert said. “It’s one of the things that I think makes Honors interesting, right, is like we try to do things together that are kinda fun! These are the experiences I had when I was in college—the more you do together with other people… those are things I remember! Those are the meaningful things that you do.”

Gonzalez agreed. For her, a motivation for excitement rather than nervousness about the project was the past experiences of honors students. “So many people said that it was fun last time they did it, because it was, like, a learning experience together, that I think I’m more excited now,” she said.

The goal and aim of volunteering with PATH is simple. As Vasquez said, “Volunteers are the heart of PATH… with large groups of volunteers, these tasks are completed sooner than later and provide a home for a family, that could be facing homelessness.”

Streufert hopes the time volunteering will make an impact on the students. “I hope it gives people perspective, I hope it gives them a place to put their energy and to put their time for the good of the community, I hope that people have a better sense of the City of Tyler… I hope that they connect us to each other, and help us understand what great things we can get done—together. It’s not just isolated.”

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