Students Continue Projects for Underserved Communities
- Oct 5, 2020
Since 2010, Projects for Underserved Communities (PUC) has brought students from the Cockrell School of Engineering and Steve Hicks School of Social Work together for a year-long, project-based service-learning course. Teams collaborate with an international partner and community to design solutions in response to community needs.
When the global pandemic caused the postponement of all university travel internationally, it also disrupted the plans of four teams who had spent the 2019-20 academic year working on projects with communities in Mexico, Costa Rica, Thailand and India.
Colin Phillips and Elise Higgins spent eight months planning and fundraising for the construction of a multipurpose community center in Siripudi, India that frequently faces challenges due to flooding. Now, a new team of students will take over the project to provide the community with a permanent structure for educational, medical and safety purposes.
PUC participants have served close to 20,000 people in ten countries with projects such as creating access to clean water, improving accessibility for people with disabilities and addressing community sanitation challenges.
Read the full story from The Daily Texan.
