Auburn University is no doubt buzzing with stories of students who are making a difference with their passions. But sometimes those stories get lost in time.
Student University, a campus organization similar to TED Talks, gives students the chance to give presentations on their unique experiences once a month.
Sarah Robertson, junior in psychology and Spanish and officer of Student University, said the organization lets students display their creative work and research.
"But we also want to find a way to apply it to all students," she said.
In relevance to the recent Hunger Week on campus, Sara Rains, junior in horticulture and nutrition, shared her involvement in hunger and poverty prevention on a local, national, and global scale on Wednesday, Oct. 29.
Rains discovered her passion for hunger and poverty issues during her freshman year after taking a hunger studies class.
Rains has since then incorporated herself into several organizations such as the One Campaign and the Global Challenge Fellows, both of which helped her exercise her voice as an individual and analyze the effect of hunger on socioeconomic situations.
Rains had the opportunity to travel to Fiji and South Africa, where she immersed herself in new cultures and lifestyles. One of the greatest lessons the travels taught her was the stark difference between peoples' wants and needs, especially within different areas of the world.
"[In Fiji], it was learning about the community and how to make the appropriate technologies -- translating them into another culture," she stated.
In South Africa, Rain witnessed peoples' reverence for voting, which contrasted to the American outlook on voting.
"It's something that we sometimes don't even feel the need to exercise when other people are out there fighting for it," she stated.
Rain also shared several perspectives on poverty -- that it's not only a financial situation. It includes aspects such as emotional poverty, a lack of support and a lack of education -- when all of these aspects are inadequately met.
And though poverty applies to developing countries, it also applies locally.
Rains is working on incorporating a Presidents United to Solve Hunger (PUSH) program where students have institutional support to fight hunger where they are.
James Martinez, senior in interdisciplinary studies, believes hunger is desensitized in America.
"So many people look to other countries for hunger," he said, "but you can go ten minutes down the road to Opelika or five minutes down the street from campus to see people right here struggling because it's a real issue."
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