NEWS: The Big Event slated for March 28
By Kaily Olivo
Editor-in-chief
Published Friday, Feb. 20, 2026
With March around the corner, so is Texas A&M International University’s annual one-day service, The Big Event, scheduled for March 28. Organizers aim for engagement, problem-solving and togetherness.
The deadline for students to register is Friday, March 13.
Unidentified student volunteers participated in last year’s The Big Event 2025 by planting flowers at the Haynes Monarch Garden, a garden adopted by the SGA LOVE Committee.
Director of Student Affairs Mayra Hernandez went back in time and shared how the Big Event came into existence for TAMIU.
“It was designed to prepare students to be career ready, more than anything for the student to understand the workforce development needs in our community,” Hernandez said. “So, when this program was started, it was more of a question of ‘How engaged [are] our TAMIU students with the community?’”
TAMIU student volunteers remove brush and debris from park trails to ensure safe and clean pathways for the community during last year’s The Big Event 2025.
Dating back to its origin, workforces shared that TAMIU students didn’t yet fully possess the full skillset.
“During that … historical time, one of [the] things our community members, and more so the workforce—the companies out there, were saying that when TAMIU students were graduating, they were not equipped as they would hope and want,” Hernandez recalled. “The academic piece they [possessed but] it was the … other skills that were necessary to be thriving professionals.”
As Hernandez shared her experience with nonprofit organizations, she also found the reason why corporations reported this.
“[To] have learned from [my] experience, it was easy for me to then look at our students and figure out there was no connection,” Hernandez said. “They didn’t understand what the problem was in our community.”
TAMIU student volunteers complete their tree-planting project at Benavides Park during The Big Event 2025.
This issue became the reason for the expansion of The Big Event, which is much more than it appears to be.
“People think it’s about the day of service,” Hernandez said. “It is more than that; it’s an economic empowerment for our community. It’s about preparing our students to be career ready by adopting and enhancing the skills necessary to work with others.”
TAMIU students and LOVE Committee chairs, from left, pose for a group photo following The Big Event 2025: Marylyn Guerrero, Karyme Rodriguez, Alejandra Flores, Elisa Saldivar and Camila Medina.
Considering the importance of collaboration, Hernandez said there are three basic goals that come out of this service.
“I say The Big Event is three basic things,” she said. “My responsibility is to teach you how to detect problems, how to solve them and how to solve them with others; that’s exactly what the Big Event is all about. It brings students, community [and] University personnel together to detect what is the problem we are facing in our community.”
As this year’s event nears, once again, TAMIU works directly with environmental services, solid waste, health department and a variety of city departments, as well as looking into going to the Chacon Creek.
“We do site visits. We go around parks and city neighborhoods to find out what are the opportunities where we can put all this human capital, human power out there to enhance,” Hernandez said. “We’re hoping to go to the Chacon Creek.”
Besides this, in general, the University aims to have students explore Laredo and see what’s out there.
Group photo after The Big Event 2025, following the completion of projects and having lunch together.
“The University is exposing our students to their own backyard, the beautiful creeks, and areas and walkways and pathways that we have and people don’t know it,” Hernandez said. “The more [students] know what are the challenges in our community, the more they probably will … contribute to solving the problem, and doing it very well with others.”
With many different departments, grants and resources that play a part in creating this year’s service event, Hernandez believes they are definitely on track, even doubling down to say it might be the best Big Event.
“I think we’re headed in the right direction,” she said. “We have grants we apply for … so I think it’s gonna be a great year because we do have, for the most part, the resources we traditionally lack [and] we continue to partner with corporations [and] agencies. I think … it’s gonna be definitely one of our best Big Event’s ever because we have many key partners bringing their piece of the pie to the project … but we’re always welcoming any sponsors.”
Along with Hernandez’s excitement for this year’s event is LOVE committee chair and graduate student Elisa Saldivar.
Saldivar shares her role as a student and her contribution to the organization and event.
“We go to different parks around Laredo: south, north, east, west [and] we also have visited the South Texas Food Bank to see what we can come up with, like what type of projects we can have the students do on that Saturday,” Saldivar explained.
“So, right now, what seems to be concrete is the South Texas Food Bank. We are going to be planning to have, I think, about 150 students there. The rest of the volunteers are going to be going to parks. At this moment, it’s still not concrete because as time progresses, sometimes the city of Laredo brings up issues like construction … so things come up. But, so far, we’ve been looking at different parks around the Chacon Creek. So that’s in the potential of getting solidified, but it hasn’t been [made] concrete just yet.”
Still, the committee goes around Laredo planning beforehand. As the day approaches, they aim for engagement from students and emphasize the networking aspect that results from participation.
“There’s a little reward for the student as well, because they can have the opportunity to apply to be a team leader,” Saldivar said. “So, during this process they can earn leadership positions they can later [put] in their resume or they can network with other students. They can meet other students. They can see what there is out there in Laredo. What’s truly rewarding is seeing all the hard work paid off because along with me and my other colleagues, like the rest of the chairs, we work so hard in reviewing team leader applications, helping out with team leader workshops [and] having our students get prepared to lead a group.”
Saldivar offered advice to prospective volunteers, or those scared of volunteering and becoming part of this event.
“I think to not be scared or not be intimidated by calling it The Big Event,” Saldivar said. “You go there and you’re gonna be given a task you can easily complete with your team; so, just be open minded, don’t be intimidated, get to know your group that you’re assigned with … I think just get out of your comfort zone and if you haven’t volunteered before, I strongly recommend it, even if you give it this one time, because for me that’s how I was.”
Besides this, the LOVE Committee attempts to emphasize the opportunity open to parenting students and their child(ren).
“We are trying to have students [who] are parents come to volunteer, and they can bring their child with them, and we have specific, safe kid activities for the kids while the parents volunteer,” Saldivar said. “We don’t know what the project will be this time around, but we are welcoming parenting students because we do also want them to be involved in the community.”
As there’s still time for the event, volunteer registration remains open, although the team leader applications have closed.
