NAU-Yuma students help with Foothills park, school snacks

After 10 years of teaching social work at Northern Arizona University-Yuma, professor Bill Pederson said this is the first year he feels that all of his students are going to leave a lasting impression on the community.

Pederson said that every year he assigns his NAU-Yuma seniors a community project to target community change.

“The purpose of their class projects is to get the ball rolling on community improvement activities and then to have the community take over.”

The class was split into three groups, each responsible for its own project addressing local issues in the community.

The first group, Pederson said, was concerned with childhood obesity. He explained that the students are working in partnership with the Foothills Optimist Club to purchase playground equipment for a plot of land near the Mesa Del Sol golf course.

“I strongly believe there needs to be a park built in the Foothills area,” said Emily Uden, social work senior. “Parents have to drive their children all the way into town to play at a park, and that is simply not acceptable.”

The students and the Foothills Optimist Club submitted a $30,000 grant application to KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to saving play for America's children, toward the purchase of the playground equipment, said Pederson.

“Childhood obesity has become an epidemic among children of all backgrounds — economic, cultural and ethnic,” said Jurixié Lopez, social work senior. “Our project aims to address the obesity issue with the children in Yuma County who live in the Foothills area. By building a family park with a playground, we hope that families, and especially children, will be motivated to become physically active.”

In the second and third groups, students commute from Imperial County to attend NAU-Yuma to receive their bachelor's degree, Pederson said.

One of their projects is focusing on stopping child neglect and preventing child abuse. Students are leading a community awareness day and asking people to bring foster children to the event so they can be supplied with survival kits of clothing, school supplies and personal hygiene products.

The last group was concerned with child hunger and proposed a midmorning snack program in the El Centro School District.

Pederson said the superintendent there embraced the idea, and now the school is also promoting its own school breakfast program.

The students should be proud of the work they are doing because these projects could have a lasting effect on the community, he said.

“As social workers, we may not be able to save the world,” said Monica Rodriguez, social work senior, “but we sure can make a difference in this world — starting today.”

Sarah Womer can be reached at swomer@yumasun.com or 539-6858.