Along Houston’s Columbia Tap trail on a humid July morning, incoming Rice University students working with Friends of Columbia Tap knelt in the mud and wrenched invasive plants from the ground, clearing space for native species and a new bioswale. Nearby, others walked the path with trash bags, filling them with litter to clean up the corridor for the surrounding neighborhood. Most of the volunteers had met only days earlier. None had started classes.
They were the newest cohort of the Moody Civic Immersion program, a weeklong experience run by Rice’s Center for Civic Leadership (CCL) that brings incoming students into the city before their first semester begins.
“Moody Civic Immersion is a program where incoming students are introduced to the social issues in the Houston area,” said rising senior Satina Chen, the program’s student coordinator. “It is a program for incoming students, made by students.”
This year’s team built the week around a theme of capitalism and power structures, tracing how economic forces and historical inequities shape the problems Houstonians face today. Organizers chose partners across the city, so participants from every major would find an issue that pulled them in.
At The Montrose Center, students organized donations and learned about the services the nonprofit provides for the LGBTQ+ community. On campus, the cohort welcomed partners including I’ll Have What She’s Having and a panel of education advocates: the Houston Federation of Teachers, Rice Partnership for the Advancement and Immersion of Refugees, Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, the League of Women Voters of Houston and Community Voices for Public Education. At Kids’ Meals, the group packed about 6,600 sandwiches for children facing food insecurity, and along Galveston Bay they worked alongside Environment Texas. The final stop pushed students to connect those larger forces to specific Houston neighborhoods.
“For T.E.J.A.S., we led a toxic tour of three East End neighborhoods disproportionately affected by regulation and redlining,” said rising senior Derek Yang, a site leader for the in-person cohort. “We showed participants the intersections of public health, industry and environmental justice.”
For many participants, the week doubled as a first real look at the city they were preparing to call home.
“I was born in Houston but raised elsewhere, and I wanted to learn about the community I’m coming into,” said Jayden Rachal, an incoming freshman. “I want to know how to make an impact in a place I care about.”
Just as often, the draw was the people.
“Coming into a new environment, you never want to start at zero,” said Karthik Kommineni, an incoming freshman from Pearland. “This program is a strong start. It gets you above ground level in terms of socialization.”
Kyra Newton, an incoming freshman, arrived already running her own civic organization in Austin and left with a place to put that energy in Houston.
“This program gave me a strong foundation to build on,” Newton said. “They lay down the groundwork, and it is up to me to build the rest.”
Chen, a transfer student who moved to Rice from New York, framed the week around a single question.
“The root of these social issues is often the same,” she said. “Education matters to every student, whether we came through public, private or charter schools. What I wanted students to explore is how you find common ground in a room full of tension and competing interests.”
For Yang, the measure of the week is what students do next.
“I hope students take away a passion for learning and for social justice,” he said. “And I hope they keep working with these community partners long after this program ends.”
The Moody Civic Immersion program is supported by the Ross Rankin Moody Civic Engagement, Student Success and Global Leadership Fund and is part of the Moody Experience at Rice. Learn more about it on the CCL website.