Spring 2008 Honors Civic Engagement Teams (HCET) programs:

1. South Tucson Spanish-Language Computer Mentoring Project

This HCET project will enter its third full year, a year in which HCET hopes to expand the tutoring program in which Honors students teach basic computing, in Spanish. In prior years we used distance education materials that originated from Monterrey Tech (ITESM) in Monterrey, Mexico. This year will see an improved course developed and taught by HCET participants. Our hope is to expand this successful program to additional Tucson public libraries and work with native Spanish speakers to utilize computing for both personal and professional development.

2. Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance

The Alliance connects people to the cultural, historic, and natural treasures of the Santa Cruz Valley through education, preservation and promotion of its unique resources. The HCET will prepare a Heritage Foods Directory for the Alliance in advance of a Spring 2008 gathering of local food producers, restaurants, food co-ops, restaurant organizations, groceries, farmers markets, seed banks, conservation farms, food banks and related non-profits to plan the development of a local farmer-to-chef network and regional food brand.

Refugee-related projects :

3. TIARC/ Tucson International Alliance for Refugees Committee - Liberia

This HCET project works in collaboration with the Tucson International Alliance for Refugee Program (TIARC), helping Liberian refugees who are struggling to adjust to the new life here in Tucson. The Tucson community has resettled more than 150 Liberian refugees. The majority are illiterate, single mothers with children. They need substantial help and we believe that the HCET program can help break the generational cycle of illiteracy within the Liberian refugee community by working directly with families.

4. Iskashi*taa Social Entrepreneurship project

Iskash*taa Refugee Harvesting Network empowers refugees by creating opportunities to use their knowledge and skills from Africa to integrate them with the larger Tucson community while gaining life skills that serve them in America. The HCET will begin a systematic approach to harvesting and collaborating with local farms and home owners in an effort to create value added food products (olive oil) using a commercial kitchen.