LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Art and photography created by children who battled cancer in Seville, Spain, are on display tonight as part of the First Friday Art Trail. The work was created during a summer camp organized by Texas Tech students, as part of the university’s first community-engaged learning courses abroad.
Human Development and Family Sciences professor Shera Thomas-Jackson is also a faculty fellow with the university’s Outreach and Engagement program. Part of that is community-engaged learning.
“That is actually working with community partners, finding out what they need, and then working with them to achieve those goals during the semester,” she said.
Thomas-Jackson found a partner in a Seville nonprofit that cares for children who have gone through cancer treatment.
“One of the key things that came out is because these children have missed so much, they’re not just behind cognitively, they’re behind socially,” Thomas-Jackson said.
With a lot of pre-med and pre-nursing students signed up to study abroad in Spain, Thomas-Jackson knew she needed a partner from another discipline to help provide the program. That’s where Nutritional Sciences Professor Allison Childress comes in. She teaches about how the science of medicine meets the art of cooking, with the goal of managing chronic disease.
Junior Lily Idayaraj said she was initially unsure how a family and community class and a culinary medicine class would work together.
“But I feel like going into class and hearing both and then actually going into the city and getting to see the culture really exemplified it, which kind of connected the dots in my head,” Idayaraj said.
Idayaraj and senior Ninsey Beltran said the chance to combine what they learned by hosting a summer camp for children who had battled cancer is what sold them on the program. The students planned art projects, physical activities, nutrition lessons and games for the kids to enjoy over the course of a week.
“Just seeing all the kids come together and, you know, like them getting to interact with each other and knowing that they haven’t always had that opportunity, being in and out of hospitals and stuff. It just felt, I felt really lucky, honestly. It didn’t feel like it was just them getting the experience. I feel like I got to experience that too,” Idayaraj said.
The professors’ partners in Spain are nominating them for an international award for their curriculum.
“It’s multidisciplinary. It’s community-engaged learning in another country. And so it’s such a unique program. And so that’s one of the reasons why we are here at LHUCA…is because we really want to show what that looks like,” Childress said.
Idayaraj said she hopes the program can serve as an example that people can make a difference, whether in Spain or at home.
“We can talk about it all we want. But like these pictures really do capture the little moments we didn’t even know that were being captured. So I think that’s really beautiful and I really hope a lot of people come and enjoy our exhibit because we had a lot of fun and we put a lot of hard work into like making it all happen,” Beltran said.
The art and photography created by the campers and Texas Tech students is on display now, with activities also available for kids. The exhibit is part of the First Friday Art Trail, which continues until 9 p.m. Friday night at LHUCA’s Icehouse Gallery on Avenue J downtown.
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