STC students take action and celebrate Arbor Day by planting trees on campus

To bring students together in an act that promotes the care of our planet’s natural resources, South Texas College students recently commemorated Arbor Day with the planting of two live oak trees on STC’s Technology campus.

“Beautify Tech with SGA” was an event organized by the campus’ Student Government Association, where students and volunteers from various programs participated in the initiative to expand the school’s curb appeal.

“We’re trying to encourage the companionship amongst the school with these types of events that bring us together to discuss what we can do as a community for the betterment of our campus,” said STC Welding student Karsten Dutremaine.

Arbor Day is observed nationally on the last Friday in April and celebrates the planting, upkeep and preservation of trees. On Arbor Day the mission is to plant more trees in the community.

“We also wanted for students to have a good time by fraternizing with each other, having students from different programs come together in a meaningful movement can be a very powerful bonding experience,” said Dutremaine.

Thanks to a gracious donation from Home Depot and a collaboration with STC’s Welding and Advanced Manufacturing programs, the campus’ Student Government Association planted both trees, affectionately named “Bob” and “Wawa”, in one of the campus’ largest green areas.

“Our next project is to plant more trees, possibly next spring, to help with shade in the parking lot. We have many green areas around here that can be utilized for planting trees and to keep adding to the scenery of our campus,” said William Rodriguez, vice-president for the Student Government Association at STC’s Technology campus.

The Student Government Association at STC is the representative organization for the student body and it provides them with a place of open discussion for matters that affect them.

The SGA at STC’s Technology campus currently has 10 members. Each semester, they organize a signature event to get students involved and remind them they will always have a voice in the growth of their school.

This year’s Arbor Day project in particular started as a suggestion from STC’s Welding department.

“They came to us with an idea to improve the scenery of our campus and we decided unanimously to act on it,” said Rodriguez. “As a technology community we can be a bit introvert, so another of our goals was to get everybody to collaborate and get to know each other through this event.”

Additionally, the Advance Manufacturing program will produce plaques with the names of the trees and the participants, in a way to memorialize the students’ contributions, setting an example to encourage future students to get involved in the school’s development.

“We’re always here to listen to the students’ concerns, when they voiced this idea, the members of the SGA got to work and made it a reality. I’m really proud of all the great work they continuously do for our school and student body,” said Robert Alaniz, Student Activities specialist and advisor for the SGA at the Technology campus.

For more information on the Student Government Association or more Student Activities offered at STC, visit https://life.southtexascollege.edu/activities/.