The National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) hosted a volunteer opportunity by bringing students together to help clean up trash around campus. 

Alyssa Cox, the vice president of the organization said, “We are an organization that prides itself on service for NRHH. So basically, we do different events that cause people to get service hours, one of which is today with our beautiful campus. We’re going around to the different parking lots. We have two different trails right now. We’re on our second, but basically people are just going out and they’re cleaning up the parking lots, missing trash or grabbing trash that people might have missed or just tossed down or along those lines.” 

Along with a booth to help students get started, there were bags and grabbers so any student who showed up between 12 PM to 2 PM could help. 

While the heat got up to 90 degrees students did not seem to waver in cleaning up the campus around them. 

About a dozen students were able to attend, many under the UCA Commitment program. According to the UCA Commitment program overview, “The UCA Commitment program is a last dollar scholarship that covers tuition and academic fees, designed to support Arkansas students who are Pell eligible or from households earning $100,000 or less a year. This program combines various forms of financial aid and support to ensure more equitable access to higher education opportunities. The program provides support for eight (8) consecutive fall and spring semesters or until the completion of a bachelor’s degree, whichever occurs first. UCA Commitment has dedicated staff who support and help students navigate the program acceptance and renewal requirements.” 

One of those students, Amy Fall, said, “We’ve been finding a lot of trash. People have been leaving different types of trash. Starbucks and different things. So we’ve been picking it up, and it’s been a good experience.”

Students made their way from the Ronnie Williams Student Center Lawn to the surrounding buildings and mainly parking lots. 

From Barridon Hall to the College of Business students for two hours cleaned away trash side by side making sure to thoroughly clean each area before continuing to the next part of campus.

Alyssa Cox said, “We are a national organization. We are a very small chapter here at UCA. We go through our chapter, through Arkansas, as well as Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. So then we go to our national level, which is all of America, which includes Mexico and Canada. Like I said, we pride ourselves on service, but we also pride ourselves on leadership and recognition. So we just kind of go around and we’re trying to help out the community, as well as our residents here at UCA.”