Today@Sam Article

Bearkat Orgs: Ubuntu

Nov. 15, 2024
SHSU Media Contact: Campbell Atkins

By Damikka Willis

Ubuntu is an organization that promotes an Earth-conscious campus community at Sam Houston State University through leadership, teamwork, utilizing individual talents, skills and ideas to produce solutions. The word “Ubuntu,” translated from Zulu, means “I am, because of who we are,” and centers around the belief that a person’s community includes family, friends and everyday peers, who work together for their collective benefit. Therefore, its essential to be active in the community to feel belonging, create a support system and be part of something bigger than yourself.

“The service and sustainability organization was actually founded not too long ago by this couple named Cecelia Casas (’20) and Salome “Sal” Salazar (’19 &’22). They wanted a better place to hang out with their friends and talk about sustainability,” said Sarah-Hope Carter, a senior at SHSU and the current president of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu hosts garden days throughout the semester, which involves prepping gardening beds, making compost and picking out weeds to ensure the assortment of fruits and veggies they grow are in good condition to give to the SHSU Food Pantry. The pantry helps the permanent residents of Huntsville and SHSU students who experience food insecurity by offering a variety of nutritious food items.

“I think our greatest impact as a group is on the City of Huntsville,” Carter said. “As students, we don’t pay taxes in the traditional sense, and the city’s biggest inventory revenues, the university and the prison, are non-taxable, so there aren’t many resources to beautify the city or for roadside cleanup.”

Carter is set to graduate this December and plans on attending an internship in Austin. It’s a bittersweet feeling to have to leave Ubuntu at the end of the semester, but there are plans for growth and community within the organization.

“Our organization’s goals consist of member gain and retention, it’s easier to run a club when you know people will attend,” Carter said. “We’re interested in planting trees and working on some of the sidewalks and landscaping to make them more accessible, because a lot of people walk, bike and scooter in Huntsville.”

Tyra Callahan is a sophomore who majors in environmental science and is the secretary for Ubuntu who shares Carter’s passion for preserving her college town.

“I believe that everyone should get to experience the world the same as I have or better than I have,” Callahan said. “I also want to leave the world better than I found it, so I'm very heavy on not littering, trying to eat clean and finding ways to reduce your carbon footprint.”

The City of Huntsville consistently analyzes trends in recycling to establish a clean and sustainable community for everyone, complementing Ubuntu’s goals of providing workshops and projects that inform students on how to become self-sustainable, which has great benefits for individuals and the environment. Ubuntu’s goals help students get involved in the community on and off campus as well as develop teamwork and problem-solving skills outside of the classroom.

“I think what we do helps to keep the campus nice and clean, and helps provide food to students,” said Callahan. “I believe that everybody should get to experience an environment like that, the current students, and the future students to come.”

Students can obtain a membership to Ubuntu by attending two of the group’s service events each semester. Experience is not needed to participate in any of the volunteering opportunities, and new members get a free t-shirt or a tote bag. All majors are welcome, and the organization showcases many opportunities to help to community and obtain service hours.

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