A handful of Raritan Valley Community College pupils currently studying nursing, including a pair of Hillsborough residents, were recently awarded the college’s Service Learning Leadership Award for their work in helping the community.
Janet Adeleke of Hillsborough, Phebean Messeh of Sayerville, Anyanna Onwumelu of Highland Park, Patricia Sanchez Reyes of Flemington and Sindy Serrano-Maradiaga of Hillsborough, were honored at the RVCC Board of Trustees meeting, held May 15.
According to the school, the Service Learning Leadership Award is awarded to students each year in an effort to recognize their “outstanding leadership and personal development attained through their service learning project and reflection activity.”
The award focuses on projects showing a high level of initiative in all areas of planning, including identifying the community need, planning the service and putting that plan into action, representatives with the school said.
The quintet of nursing students were given the recognition for their work in an after-school program serving low-income, minority children and young teens from Somerset County at the Martin Luther King Youth Center in Bridgewater.
Officials said the students, all of whom are immigrants, chose the Martin Luther King Youth Center because its cultural similarities to their own.
The students’ project focused on a number of topics, including: Healthy Food Choices, Growth and Development, Holistic Health Care Delivery, Disease Prevention, Recovery from Illness, and Promotion of Wellness.
According to RVCC, the students taught the center’s youths about the differences between healthy food and fast food, and offered information about the nutritional characteristics of ethnic dishes. They also shared their own cultural recipes for healthy eating and encouraged the MLK students to cook their ethnic food using more heart-healthy alternatives.