Students help pay tuition while visiting senior citizens

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Emotional poverty is not an everyday phrase for most college students, but it is the primary building block for Micah Immanuel Caring and Helping Foundation.

Established in 2002, the MICAH Foundation is a volunteer service organization devoted to combatting the emotional poverty that many senior citizens face every day due to lack of visitors in nursing homes and assisted living centers, sometimes for many years. 

“I volunteered and worked in the nonprofit world,” said Brenda Merritt, founder and executive director of the MICAH Foundation. “I loved the concept, but I saw a lot of things I wanted to change.”

The foundation started as a traditional volunteer-based organization, but has become an organization that repays its volunteers in an entirely unique way.

MICAH uses individuals in financial or material need to serve senior citizens. From college students needing tuition assistance to single parents needing help with electric bills, the MICAH Foundation is available to help. 

“I knew that I wanted to use the people perceived as the problem to solve the problem,” Merritt said.

Individuals in need of financial assistance can earn money by contributing hours at nursing homes, assisted living centers and similar institutions, as long as the volunteer completes the required amount of service before he or she receives a check.

Volunteers contribute one hour for each $10 they need, Merritt said. If an individual has a $150 electric bill to pay, he or she simply has to volunteer 15 hours.

MICAH is funded through outside donations and nearly all of the money goes back to the volunteers.

“As the funding comes in, we put it out the door,” Merritt said.

MICAH has paired with Oklahoma State University Campus Life and currently has 20 students working towards educational vouchers in return for their service, as well as a waiting list of almost equal size.

Interested students apply during the first two weeks of school and undergo a training at the facility in which they will be working and then begin their service on their own schedule. Students are required to complete 25 hours of service in a semester to receive a $250 voucher for tuition, books and other school-related expenses.

Joyce Montgomery, OSU Service-Learning Volunteer Center coordinator, is working toward having students’ service in MICAH count for academic credit in some classes.

“We are looking at faculty members that are interested in working with students or addressing it with their classes either through service-learning or extra credit,” Montgomery said. “We are working with them to find ways to help encourage visitation through classes for academic credit.” 

Student volunteers complete a variety of activities with the residents including hosting parties, playing games, reading, taking walks, singing with residents and many more. Activities are not limited to the list received at training; students can choose other activities as long as they coincide with guidelines and rules laid out in training.

Many residents begin to familiarize the volunteer’s voice and presence the more he or she visits and participates in similar activities, Montgomery said.

“I find that fascinating,” she said. “I have seen residents that do not speak clearly and then somewhere along the lines something clicks and they start articulating well. They certainly seem happier. They will joke or dance or play and return to their personality.” 

Service hours through the MICAH Foundation also will count for students pursuing the CORD at graduation.

Merritt said she reached out to the university to help students with accountability and hands-on learning.

OSU does a great job educating students, but students sometimes lack a hands-on experience, she said.

“Knowledge is taking things in,” Merritt said. “Wisdom is the ability to do it.”

The MICAH Foundation aims to give students that hands-on experience and give others the ability to earn money while retaining their dignity, all the while fighting the emotional poverty among senior citizens.

“What I am interested in is that these folks do not go through life without somebody to come visit them,” Merritt said. “Everybody benefits; it is a win-win for everyone. It is a win for humanity.”

Story by Rachel Metzger