Since September 2016, the 120 first-year students in the Honors Program have participated in a unique service learning project for HON 200B, their first-year seminar class: Actively assisting the Northern Nevada International Center (NNIC) in its refugee relocation project. Students are welcoming arriving families at the airport, refurbishing housing for the nine families from the Congo and Syria currently in Reno, raising funds for refugee assistance, attending local organizing meetings and town halls, planning a winter coat drive and book drive, researching and planning summer camps for the refugees next year, tutoring refugee children and more. Honors faculty mentor the service step by step.

First-year Honors students added to this impressive list this week by taking their own initiative to organize a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for the newly-arrived refugee families - a total of 43 people. Within three hours of getting the word out on Facebook and Twitter, 16 Honors students had signed up to donate all the necessary food and join in on cooking teams.

Daniel Villanueva, assistant director of the Honors Program and coordinator of the HON 200B course, was very excited when the students came to him with this idea. He said, not only was it great that students suggested this on their own, but also, "First-year Honors students typically contribute 2,000 hours of service to the community every fall semester. This refugee project stands to meet, if not exceed, previous years' service hours."  

University Honors student and dinner co-coordinator Rachel Rezaei got the idea from the American Medical Student Association student organization on campus, which makes Thanksgiving dinner every year to provide meals to the underserved in Reno.  

"We decided this year to make Thanksgiving dinner for the refugees instead, to make them feel more welcome and show them we are excited to have them here," Rezaei said.  

For NNIC Executive Director Carina Black, this student-initiated project is a wonderful addition to the work the NNIC is doing in refugee relocation.  

"The Center has continuously been amazing by the tremendous outpouring of support from the community," Black said. "And these Honors students rock - they will bring a lot of joy to these families this holiday."  

The student organizers reserved kitchen space at the NNIC headquarters to prepare the meals. Thanksgiving Day, student delivery teams will swing into action and bring the cooked items to each family. They are taking special care to observe any dietary restrictions of the refugees while sharing food and traditions of this American holiday.  

"This service project - and encouraging students to take their own initiative on things like Thanksgiving dinner - supports the overall mission of the Honors Program," Villanueva said. "We are here to educate students not only to become scholarly leaders in their fields, but also to engage with the campus and local community in leadership activities. Likewise, since this is truly international service, another goal of Honors - encouraging its students to become global citizens - is also being met."