TIs organize review to help local homeless

Students walking into Saturday’s review session for “Organic Chemistry” were not just lugging their hefty textbooks. They also carried boxes of cereal, cans of beans and winter accessories like lotion and lip balm.

Although these students could have spent their entire weekend preparing for their exam, they wanted to ensure that the upcoming holiday season brings merriment and comfort for everyone in the New Brunswick community.

Teaching interns for the course, Akash Patel and Chirag Patel, conducted the review session at the Lucy Stone Hall auditorium and a couple of smaller classrooms in Tillet Hall on Saturday afternoon. Before the four-hour session began, every student donated a non-perishable food item, winter accessory or cash to Elijah’s Promise, a New Brunswick soup kitchen that aims to assist the homeless.

Chirag and Akash Patel, both School of Arts and Sciences seniors, were the masterminds behind the idea of a charity session merged with the review session. They had planned for it to take place last year, Akash Patel said, but due to time constraints and lack of volunteers, they weren’t able to pan out the idea.

The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology increased the number of TIs from nine to almost 27 this year, Akash Patel said. This enabled them to hold a review session for a class of almost 1,400 students, nearly 600 of which attended the review.

Behind the stage, where the TIs solved Chemistry problems and provided answers for students, were 20 large boxes with almost 500 cans and boxes of food items and clothing. In addition, the TIs collected $1,400 in monetary donations, Akash Patel said.

“Although it was a suggested donation, I didn’t come across one person who didn’t donate,” he said. “Someone brought three boxes full of canned goods, some even donated a dollar or $20 or $50. Everyone brought whatever they could.”

The TIs advertised for the charity review using Sakai as well as on their Rutgers University Organic Chemistry 2014-15 Facebook page that students usually use to post their problems about class concepts and to post messages and videos to boost the class’s morale. 

Akash Patel said to increase turnout, the TIs told the students that they would have a “mystery guest” in the middle of the review, and they would give away a “hint” for the exam. 

They received the hint via professor Robert Boikess, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and the course coordinator for the “Organic Chemistry” classes at Rutgers. Boikess was also the one who gave them the green flag for conducting the charity review.

The “mystery guest” was class lecturer Christine Altinis-Kiraz, who is teaching the last of the three segments of the class. Altinis said she volunteered to come for the review to help students with getting their questions answered.

Altinis-Kiraz was very impressed by the turnout of the event and the charitable spin that the TIs gave to it.

“I actually thought it was a very sensitive, wonderful thing to do,” she said. “When you are students, you get wrapped up and don’t think about giving back because of the huge amount of pressure … so I think it was very nice to give back to the community.”

Altinis-Kiraz said she donated cash for the cause, although she chose not to disclose the amount. 

Today five to 10 of the TIs plan to drop the donations that include blankets, gloves, scarves and canned food, among other things, to Elijah’s Promise, Akash Patel said.

According to the organization’s needs, they plan to buy the required items with the cash donations.

Akash Patel said he hopes that this act can inspire other Rutgers departments to follow suit and give back to the local community.

As reported by Elijah’s Promise, New Brunswick had 1,528 homeless people in 2013.

Recently, Rutgers University Libraries implemented a policy requiring any library visitors after 10 p.m. to display a Rutgers ID. Although the policy was directed to look into the problem of homelessness around the University community, Akash Patel said the charity was not a response to the policy implementation.

Priya Kantesaria, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore who attended the review, donated cans of beans and $10 for the charity.

Kantesaria said the donation aspect of the session helped her change the negative connotation attached to “Organic Chemistry.”

“Remembering that there is someone around this orgo bubble, … and that there are causes more worthy makes us bring out all of our negativity and feel more positive about it,” she said. “We live in New Brunswick ... so it’s important to share with the larger community. I don’t think anyone should not have a holiday dinner to eat.”