2008 Raiders Who Rock Award Winners and their Insight
by Jeremy Schwartz
Very rarely are college students and elderly people able to strike a common chord in life. Even rarer is being able to form lasting, mutual relationships between the groups.
Two Texas Tech students, Miranda Woodruff and Shay Raygada, were recognized with the first annual Raiders Who Rock award for their ability to break down this age barrier while volunteering at the VistaCare Hospice center.
Recipients of the Raiders who Rock award, given through the Center for Campus Life and the Dean of Students, exhibit values promoted by The Foundation for a Better Life through their actions and services within the Lubbock and Tech communities.
Woodruff and Raygada were taking "Human Behavior in the Social Environment," a service learning course in social work, which combines regular class lecture time with off-campus community service opportunities.
According to the course syllabus, students conduct interviews with a hospice patient in the Lubbock area. Each group of students then produces a product which illustrates the individual’s life history and can be kept by the patient and their family as a memento celebrating their life.
Miranda Woodruff, a junior social working major who was recognized with the Raiders Who Rock award, said it was very interesting to learn about human behavior throughout the lifespan from birth to death.
“I really enjoyed how the course was structured,” Woodruff said. “We learned the material in class and then were able to meet with our patient and apply everything we had learned.
“We got to hear all of our patient’s experiences and feelings throughout certain aspects of their lives, apply theories and really get to the bottom of why they were feeling that way,” Woodruff said.
According to the Tech Center for Campus Life Web site, the overall purpose of getting the students out of the normal classroom environment is to teach them how diverse human characteristics and experiences can impact an individual’s development across a lifespan.
Woodruff said the most enjoyable aspect of the course was the opportunity to build a relationship with her hospice patient.
“I made a friend and a mentor,” Woodruff said. “I really got a chance to take a broad look at my life from this experience, and ended up reassessing my priorities. Many times, people get so caught up in their own lives that they don't really see or think clearly about what is happening,” Woodruff said.
Some products that students make for their patients include scrapbooks, video albums, photo collages, and memory quilts. Woodruff decided to make a photo collage for her patient, incorporating all of the roles she played in life.
“We had a huge picture of her, in the middle, standing in front of tons of flowers and then filled in the rest of the huge frame with other pictures,” Woodruff said. “I took pictures of things around her house that were important to her, took pictures of her paintings, her piano, and her hands while cross stitching. It was really beautiful.”
Shay Raygada, a junior social working major who also won the Raiders Who Rock award, said she was surprised by the special relationship she was able to form with an elderly person and said she really liked conversing with her patient.
"He was really sarcastic in a good, funny way," Raygada said. "He also thoroughly enjoyed sharing his stories and words of wisdom with my partner and I.
"My patient was a hardworking, loving, disciplined, courageous and determined individual," Raygada said. "I learned a lot from my patient and was able to establish a very special relationship."
Shannon Ramos, the volunteer coordinator for VistaCare Hospice, said she came up with the idea for this service learning course after hearing of a similar hospice program in Florida.
“There was a research study done, saying that hospice patients have a lot in common with college aged students because of the way they two groups view life, Ramos said.
“Hospice patients are looking back on their lives asking, ‘what did I accomplish, did I leave a mark on this world, and what have I done,’ while young college people are looking forward at their lives asking, ‘what mark am I going to make in this world, what is ahead of me, and how am I going to leave my legacy,” Ramos said.
Ramos said, judging from the responses Hospice has gotten from patients and their families, the time that the center's terminally ill patients spend with these college students is truly beneficial.
“I think it brings out the young person in our patients,” Ramos said. “It allows them to focus less on what is ailing them at the time, and when they see that young person, they remember back to their memorable moments.
Woodruff and Raygada received the 2008 Raiders Who Rock award for their caring services and dedication toward helping others in their community. The award will be given every January.