From the president
Louhelaine Legros has served in virtually every student role in the UMass Boston Center for Urban and Off Campus Student Services (UACCESS). She has become a fierce advocate for an often overlooked demographic on college campuses: the victims of poverty. She has interfaced with our partners to request and receive food and donations of various items. She has become a center expert in helping students to understand qualifications and apply for government benefits. She has been instrumental in interfacing with community organizations that offer our students legal counsel, tax preparation services, and financial literacy. She has assisted students in developing a consciousness of the ways that in-school case management can aid them through some of their struggles. She has worked with UACCESS staff in identifying new programs and new strategies for serving the clientele of the center more impactfully. Her leadership as a human services major is really evident in the fearless trial and error approach she takes to her work in the center which, of course, encourages her peers that work in the center to take calculated risks to do the same.
Personal Statement
Albert Schweitzer said, "The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to assist others." While pursuing a human services degree, I was fortunate to be hired as an education coordinator at U-Access. In this capacity, I educated students and faculty about the center’s goals and the services we offer. Due to the exposure, I became eager to become a UACCESS social services assistant because I wanted to learn how to correctly evaluate cases to provide individuals with the appropriate resources. When I was finally promoted to the role I managed a case load of 100 students per term, performed community outreach, and offered helpful recommendations and ideas to ensure that the operations ran efficiently. As a student leader, I now view the assisting field through very positive lens. In understand it as a rewarding profession despite the highs and lows of the work. The Newman Civic Fellowship will help me achieve my goals by enabling me to display my work and raise consciousness that one of the purposes of human existence is to serve. Everyone is entitled to assistance in achieving happiness and prosperity.