While many Truman State University students returned home for winter break, many international students remained in Kirksville. However, since many of the people international students carpooled with were now hours away, they could no longer obtain groceries. The Center for Diversity and Inclusion and Student Government came together to solve this problem by providing frequent van trips to Kirksville’s grocery stores and to Columbia.
“We have a form that’s online that allows students to essentially register and on that form there’s a slew of dates that they can choose from to attend a trip to Walmart,” said Kerrion Dean, program coordinator of the CDI. “Then, there’s three trips that we had scheduled to go to Columbia, Missouri. It was essentially open to all students.”
Dean said there were an average of five to seven students on each van trip. He also said the program was not difficult to manage. All there was to do was reserve the vans.
Dean said Student Government was the one to bring this to the CDI’s attention. Marcia Humphreys, president of Student Government, spoke more about the program’s intent.
“Our goal was to time it so that international students were able to sign up, and be provided for during the break,” Humphreys said. “There were Walmart trips during the break, and the Columbia trip fell right after break. I know that people who were staying here [in Kirksville] who usually rideshare with domestic students or other international students … those people may have left for vacation somewhere. We tried to bridge that gap.”
Humphreys said there were a lot of people involved in making the program successful. She also said the program was being used highly and consistently.
International student Rhicha Rupakheti was one of the students who used the vans.
“I feel like it’s inclusive, and it’s a new thing that the Student Government and CDI started,” Rupakheti said, “It’s better for everyone. And it’s definitely easy to use.”
Rupakheti also said she would use the program in the future if it was provided again. Dean said it is their intention if everything goes to plan this semester.