SOCORRO Comes to the Aid of Area Immigrants

Virginia Commonwealth University's service-learning program is a source of pride for the university, which regards community engagement and service as a fundamental component of its strategic plan, Quest for Distinction.

While service-learning courses have taken students all over the world, from Guatemala to Ghana, the program concentrates heavily on helping those in its own community.

Anita Nadal, M.L.A., Spanish instructor and Spanish Instruction Community Liaison, teaches "Spanish 322: Hispanic Immigrants in the United States," which requires students to serve in the community. After this summer's earthquake and hurricanes, Nadal wanted to gather donations for Richmond's Mixtecos — immigrants originally from Mexico.

Operation SOCORRO was born.

Socorro, which is Spanish for "help" or "aid," stands for Serving Our Communities Orderly Resolutely Respectfully Officiously.

Last month, Nadal's students collected food, clothing and toy donations from students and employees.

"What is impressive is that some students did this work in addition to the 20 hours required for the course," Nadal said. "Many got up early [on a Saturday morning] to help bring in more donations, and help set up before the 30 expected families showed up with their children to pick up the food, toys and clothes."

It was an invaluable experience for her students, Nadal said. They were able to speak to the families in Spanish and pick up some Mixteco phrases.

"When you think of VCU's mission and the importance given to diversity, these students epitomize that mission," Nadal said. "They most definitely brought it to life by speaking in another language and experiencing an intercultural exchange with people who they would, under normal day-to-day circumstances, probably have never been able to intermingle with like they did [that day]. As an educator, it was a magical day that I will always remember."