{"id":244694,"date":"2026-04-11T05:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/244694\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T05:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:07:09","slug":"be-the-aid-you-want-to-see-in-the-world-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/244694\/","title":{"rendered":"Be the aid you want to see in the world \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Be<\/a> <\/p>\n

In 2025, the Trump administration defunded the United States Agency for International Development, an organization responsible for providing humanitarian aid to developing nations. In response, many are concerned with the lack of support for struggling communities. However, UT provides opportunities for students to actively help solve issues in these areas and learn more about global crises.<\/p>\n

The defunding of USAID has had a direct effect on the humanitarian efforts around the globe.<\/p>\n

\u201c(At) one of the (humanitarian) agencies where our students are interning, even the employees are not getting paid,\u201d said Tanya Voss, clinical professor and assistant dean for global engagement. \u201cThey had funding from the U.S. government, and now they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, students volunteering abroad have a larger role to play, filling in gaps created by cuts in government funding. They are being asked to do more work and provide higher-level skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This increased responsibility for students enables them to create substantial change in developing areas, which helps resolve economic, social and environmental issues. UT offers several ways to implement these solutions. One such program is Projects with Underserved Communities, which combines engineering and social work to craft practical solutions.<\/p>\n

According to Voss, projects have ranged from building a fire escape on a school to a soccer field that turned a particular community in Costa Rica into a regional social hub.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, these projects have the capacity to have long-lasting effects on communities, both physically and socially. Voss mentioned how building a library in one Indian village had an unexpected side effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe girls (living in the village) saw that there were students who were female, and they had always thought that libraries and books were for people in big cities, in particular, boys and men,\u201d\u00a0 Voss said. \u201cWhat (we) found out was that some of the girls in the village had gone on a hunger strike because they didn\u2019t want to be married off as child brides. They wanted to have the chance to go for an education, and it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

These acts of service are also beneficial for students, providing lessons through firsthand experience. Specifically, students develop their cultural awareness. The student organization, AIESEC, which provides international leadership opportunities to young adults, emphasizes this sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur motto is to promote cross-cultural exchange for the peace and fulfillment of humankind\u2019s potential,\u201d said Hanna Rodriguez, international relations and global studies junior and outreach marketing vice president for AIESEC at UT.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Students also gain a broader understanding of the world from these experiences, placing their issues in perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat (one student) said was that going for an international practicum made her wake up to the realities of the world,\u201d Voss said. \u201cIt makes the world more complex and helps our students understand how interdependent we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, these programs equip students with practical skills that will be crucial if students seek to pursue international involvement professionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our opportunities are geared towards you getting those leadership skills that come from being in a different setting in a different environment in a different culture,\u201d said Celeste Jones, psychology and human dimensions of organization junior and membership experience vice president of AIESEC at UT.<\/p>\n

The United States\u2019 shift in its view of foreign aid has damaged assistance efforts in developing regions around the globe. However, students who feel discouraged by these changes now have the critical opportunity to step in when help is needed most. We should see the loss of USAID not as just a devastating blow, but as a call to action.<\/p>\n

Stark is a chemical engineering freshman from Orange County, California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2025, the Trump administration defunded the United States Agency for International Development, an organization responsible for providing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-244694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}