Photo Courtesy Jose Pablo Rojas
Sol Garcia | THE RIDER
The First Year Internship program has adapted to online teaching first-year university students about student advocacy and the Student Government Association at UTRGV.
The semester-long internship is for first-year students, regardless of major or classification.
“The First Year Internship program is, basically, to immerse first-year students in university policy and in university advocacy, advocacy towards the entirety of the student body to ensure that every single student’s voice is heard,” said Jose Pablo Rojas, FYI director.
The program’s goal is to educate interns, but Rojas said he wants them to have a more active role. Under his management, interns not only learn about governing documents and receive mentoring from SGA members, but they are also active in community involvement, said Rojas, a biology senior.
“In the past, the program was just to educate the interns,” he said. “That’s why I reformed it, and I gave it an actual structure where the students can be able to go out there and be active and be ambassadors for the community.”
Rojas’ restructuring of the program includes reaching out to university organizations and working together and individually in projects.
“The individual project can be anything that they want it to be,” the director said. “I tell them, ‘If you want to make an organization, I’m all for it. If you want to shape policy, I’m all for it. If you want to work on amendments, I’m all for it.’ Just as long as they do something that they’re passionate in.”
Denisse Lopez, a biomedical sciences freshman and FYI intern, is working with health freshman Ma Mikhaila Olivia Ocampo, another intern, to create a new university course at UTRGV for their individual project.
Lopez and Ocampo learned UTRGV offers a preparation course for the Medical College Admission Test, and they came up with the idea to offer that course as an elective.
“Our goal is to make this MCAT preparation as a course that will be open for any students … to have it, like, an elective,” Lopez said.
The two interns are planning to meet with college representatives to discuss the project.
“We’re planning on meeting with the College of Sciences, the College of Health Professions and seeing how this course can possibly benefit the university and the students as well,” Lopez said.
However, some of the nine current interns have encountered a challenge when coming up with individual projects that will serve UTRGV.
Some of them have never stepped foot on campus.
“I did speak to one of my advisers because we were talking about how it’s going to be difficult, the fact that they haven’t been on campus, but we work with what we have,” Rojas said. “I told them, ‘Try not to focus on the situation that we are in right now. Work with what you have and come up something with what you’ve got.’ And that’s what they did.”
The interns meet virtually with Rojas weekly to discuss their projects and other FYI business, as well as attend SGA meetings via Zoom.
As a former FYI intern, Rojas learned the importance of being a student leader, preparing him for his previous position as an SGA senator, his present position as FYI director and running for SGA president, he said.
“[The FYI] shaped my leadership to act with compassion and determination to ensure every single student is heard,” the SGA presidential candidate said. “It made me learn the inside and the outside of SGA.”
Last semester, Samantha Lara, a political science junior, was a member of the FYI. Now, she’s the chief justice for the SGA.
The FYI has prepared her for her newest role in the judicial branch, Lara said.
“Personally, for my role, I was mentored under the [previous] chief justice last semester,” she said. “I felt really prepared to take up that position myself, since I was mentored directly under him and I feel really confident that the FYI program has prepared me in all the ways that it possibly could have to become an official member of SGA.”
Lara encourages future first-year students to join the program, not only to join an organization, but also to make friendships.
“I still talk to everyone from the FYI program last semester,” she said. “Not only was it a great way to get involved with an organization as a first-year student, but it was a great way to make some new friends.”
For more information on the FYI, visit VLink.
