Liberal Studies Students volunteered to cook for the homeless community at the WCP (We Care Program), located in Downtown Turlock earlier this month.

The event involved students buying food to cook in the WCP kitchen and serving the homeless community in the cafeteria.

As part of their Senior Seminar course, Professor Brett Ashmun, a Liberal Studies professor, proposed the idea to volunteer at this event to his class and the students coordinated to make these ideas a reality.

Professor Ashmun explained that his main role in the planning of this volunteering event was as a facilitator. Ashmun said, “I threw it out there as an idea and let the students take over from there.”

In relation to the educational aspect of the experience, Professor Ashmun said, “I feel like as a teacher, we should be looking out for others and be involved in the community and taking care of others, not just in the classroom.”

Professor Ashmun also credited two students in his class, Jocelyn Rodriguez (senior, Liberal Studies) and Melissa Borillo (senior, Liberal Studies) for getting a signup sheet going, deciding the meal they were going to make, and “taking the lead on it.”

Jocelyn Rodriguez and Melissa Borillo both have participated in previous volunteering experiences at the We Care Program while in Professor Ashmun’s classes.

Jocelyn Rodriguez sees the benefits that the volunteering experiences bring to them as they are looking into a career in teaching. Rodriguez said, “We’re gonna have students who come from a lower socioeconomic status than other students. We have to teach all of our students to give back and to have that compassion that we, ourselves, have.”

Melissa Borillo added that this event gave students an opportunity to learn about the hardship of others. She expressed the lesson of empathy that the students learned through the experience of volunteering by being able to observe the struggles of the homeless and the gratitude that they displayed when free food was served to them.

Gethsemani Esparza (senior, Liberal Studies) was another student who participated in the volunteer event and was thrilled to be there with her classmates to help feed the homeless.

Esparza saw the experience as overwhelmingly positive and said, “Honestly, it is something very exciting and I am very happy to be a part of this team. I am happy that we all got together and did something to help our community and I feel like it is something we should be doing often.”

Esparza added the lesson on compassion that came with the experience and said, “We might have everything and some people don’t even have a warm meal at night. It’s something that we need to learn how to be compassionate and care about others and not just ourselves.”

Through Professor Ashmun’s class of LIBS 4960, these students served their community and by volunteering at the We Care Program, were able to educate themselves on compassion and empathy.