When Students Care

This paper examines how first year students at a South Texas Gulf Coast university became engaged as researchers and writers in investigating the multi-dimensional issues that impact hurricane victims and their communities. Working with a number of faculty from their learning community and beyond who helped them see the cross-disciplinary implications of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, many of these students succeeded not only in creating a scholarly conversation on this topic in class, but demonstrated a compassion for others in their research. Through their research projects, many of them developed a research obsession that was manifested when they learned to care.