EDITOR’S LETTER EDITOR’S LETTER

Hey there readers, happy 2021! *insert celebratory kazoo noise here* Welcome to Cooglife Magazine’s first issue of 2021: The Involvement

Now I ask you, what does involvement mean to you? In the context of college, you might instinctively think it’s just about joining a club, which is a part of it of course, but for this issue we’re looking at the bigger picture. How do we connect with others in such an isolating and confusing time? How do we get involved with our community and give back to it? How do we build up the confidence to become part of something bigger than ourselves?

These are the questions that this month’s issue aims to look at. While there’s no straightforward, one-sizefits-all answer to any of them, (but really, does anything have that?) we hope that our content sparks some self-reflection and insight into your involvement with campus and your community. Also, we hope that this issue can help start your new year with excitement and hope towards what’s ahead of you. We’ve got interviews with phenomenal UH students, quizzes and guides on getting involved in Houston and on-campus, personal narratives from students who conquered the daunting task of finding the right fit for them at UH, in their community, and more.

When I first started at UH, I only knew two people that went here. To say the least, I was pretty lonely, and I longed to find my place in this big university and even bigger city. Luckily during my first week here I had some spare time, and I attended an involvement fair where I got to meet leaders from The Cougar, our student newspaper at UH. Flash forward to three years later, and I was news editor of the paper and had found the most amazing friends because of it.

Anyways reader, I wish you the best of luck in finding your niche here, and the happiest of new years!

Sincerely,

AUTUMN RENDALL Executive Editor

Editorial

Autumn Rendall, Executive Editor cooglife@thedailycougar.com

Covers

Juana Garcia, Creative Director of The Cougar ame@thedailycougar.com

Writing

Haya Panjwani

Jordan Hart

Jo’Tavia Norbert

Sofia Gonzalez

Anna Baker

Yidan Ren

Jiselle Santos cooglife

@cooglifemag

@cooglifemag

Kelechi Iroegbu

As Kelechi Iroegbu, 20, drove down the streets of the Third Ward, he was met with a familiar scene to the Houston area: people experiencing homelessness asking for money.

Iroegbu knew he didn’t have the cash to help them, but it made him wonder what else he could do to help the many people he saw in need.

“I thought, ‘How can I help other than money?’’ Iroegbu said. “I’m not a millionaire, so I’m not able to provide monetary support.”

This question has resulted in a chain of service events organized and led by Iroegbu that were centered around people coming together to contribute to the community in ways other than financial donations.

How it all started

As an SGA senator and RA at Bayou Oaks, Iroegbu’s network for potential donors was diverse. In February 2020, with the help of his residents and the residents of his fellow RA’s, he was able to gather 2,500 items of clothing from a simple tweet and a few GroupMe messages.