Zavala coordinates blood drive, Cesar Chavez March
A blood drive will take place on Monday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot behind the TSTC Student Center.
By Valley Morning Star
Erica Zavala can relate in many ways to the students she works with at Texas State Technical College. Zavala has been a recruitment specialist for the College Assistance Migrant Program since May 2012.
CAMP is a one-year program that helps migrant students make the transition from high school to college. Different kinds of assistance is provided to the students including financial, personal, career and academic counseling.
For Zavala, her duties aren’t limited to recruiting of new students. CAMP students will host the second Cesar E. Chavez Blood Drive on Monday at TSTC.
Zavala, a La Feria native, is coordinating the inaugural Cesar Chavez March in conjunction with the blood drive.
Zavala and her family were migrant workers most of her life and she said honoring a migrant workers’ champion like Chavez with a march on campus was something she felt needed to get done.
“I had never heard of a march in his honor in Harlingen before,” Zavala said. “I know there are a lot of Cesar Chavez marches around the nation to honor him. I just thought it was a perfect time to host one here at TSTC.”
The blood drive is part of a national campaign that takes place during the last week of March in remembrance of Chavez’s birthday on March 31.
CAMP students from colleges and universities across the country hold blood drives on their campuses.
The blood drive will take place on Monday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot behind the Student Center.
Last year, 225 colleges and universities participated and collected 16,075 pints of blood.
In 2012 TSTC exceeded its goal of 60 donors and 80 pints of blood, with 88 pints were collected from 109 donors.
This year the drive will have a new look as the march hopes to attract more people and awareness.
The march is open to students, faculty, staff and the community as well. The march will start at the College Readiness and Awareness Building (Building B) and proceed along the mall across campus. The march will start at 9 a.m. and will be followed by the blood drive.
“CAMP is close to my heart,” Zavala said. “I worked in the fields with my parents for as long as I can remember and working with these students is something I really believe in. I think CAMP is a great program and it helps promote higher education.”
Zavala was a CAMPer herself. After graduating from La Feria High School in 2002, she joined the military and later attended Palo Alto College in San Antonio. She completed her bachelor’s at the University of Texas at Brownsville, where she was involved in CAMP.
“I relate to these students and I know what they’re going through,” Zavala said.