{"id":53384,"date":"2025-11-17T20:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T20:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/53384\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T20:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T20:15:07","slug":"project-rise-uh-students-create-social-emotional-program-for-immigrant-families-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/53384\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Rise: UH students create social-emotional program for immigrant families, children"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Houston Honors College hosts panelists speaking on healing in immigrant communities, Nov. 4, 2025 in Houston, Texas. | Raphael Fernandez\/The Cougar<\/p>\n

The Honors College<\/a> teamed up with the Graduate College of Social Work<\/a> to present their upcoming consumer service program, Project Rise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Project Rise stands for Resilience, Identity, Support and Empowerment. It was founded by Honors students Brandon Than<\/a> and Haley Romine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRise is a social learning program that\u2019s targeting the development of emotional awareness skills in children from immigrant families,\u201d Than said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The presentation featured panelists who contributed to the development of the project.<\/p>\n

Than was selected as a recipient of the 2025\u201326 Albert Schweitzer Fellowship<\/a>, which provided funding for Project Rise, said Attorney and senior lecturer in the Honors College Michelle Belco.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Houston-Galveston\u2019s goals of fostering healthier communities and empowering immigrants were a key factor in their incentive for creating the project,\u201d Belco said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ASFHG is a community service organization dedicated to providing resources and support to immigrant communities in Houston and Galveston.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Than and Romine were researching potential community partners, they met Executive Director of Casa Matao <\/a>and UH alum Monica Holtkamp.<\/p>\n

Holtkamp graduated from UH\u2019s Graduate College of Social Work<\/a> in 2013 and later joined ASFHG. During her time there, she explored what the concept of safety means for individuals experiencing displacement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This led Holtkamp to establish Casa Mateo, a shelter for immigrant mothers and children who have experienced trauma.<\/p>\n

\u201cMigrant mothers wanted services that would help uplift their children,\u201d Holtkamp said. \u201cThey wanted their children to go to school. They wanted their kids to get medical care, to be vaccinated \u2014 services that were not readily available to them in their countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holtkamp introduced the Honors students to the immigrant population she serves, and the three began daily meetings and site visits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During these meetings, they met Graduate College of Social Work professor Jodi Berger Cardozo, who researches resilience-building in immigrant communities.<\/p>\n

Honors College assistant professor Janet Lawler served as Than and Romine\u2019s academic mentor, teaching them social-emotional learning techniques used to develop lesson plans aimed at improving communication skills among migrant children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Than and Romine will now be bringing Cardozo and Lawler\u2019s curriculum to Casa Mateo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe curriculum will be adopted into a three-month program,\u201d Than said. \u201cWe are going to have engaging activities that will build resilience and communication skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before activities begin, mentors will conduct an emotional check-in, allowing students to express their emotions for the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first activity will involve creating \u201cappreciation stations,\u201d where children move around the classroom and write compliments or letters of appreciation for their peers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next, students will be divided into groups and tasked with solving riddles and clues around the Casa Mateo building to uncover a secret treasure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, students will be given a ball of yarn and read a series of prompts. If a statement applies to them, they will toss the yarn to another person, creating a visual web of shared experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goals are to build trust and connection, and for children to practice empathy and kindness toward their peers,\u201d Romine said.<\/p>\n

After participating in the activities, students will have a five-minute journaling session to reflect on their experiences.<\/p>\n

The program is set to begin soon, sometime in 2026, said Than and Romine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

news@thedailycougar.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Honors College hosts panelists speaking on healing in immigrant communities, Nov. 4, 2025 in Houston, Texas. |…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[29629,56,58,57,29630,18308],"class_list":["post-53384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-honors-college","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-immigrant-children","tag-immigrant-families"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53384","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=53384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}