SORRENTO – River Parishes Community College students from various disciplines came together this fall to work on projects related to the effects of Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike as part of a Ready Campus Course Integration Grant funded by Louisiana Campus Compact.

The students also produced a skit about hurricane preparation.

A presentation at River Parishes Community College highlighted a skit created by the students about storm preparedness, as well as posters of photographs of hurricane damage. Guest speakers included Dr. Saundra McGuire, associate dean at the Center for Academic Success at Louisiana State University; Robert Burgess of Eatel, who was a sponsor of the event; and Dr. Stuart Stewart, executive director of Louisiana Campus Compact.

Savitha Pinnepalli organized the presentation, and displays of the projects involved other faculty members, including Dr. Iris Henry, Dr. Lee Kleinpeter, Wendy Johnson, Steven Hadley, Sharon Lagarde, Dr. Woukeenia Cousin, and Debbie Graham. Sponsors included Eatel and RPCC faculty and staff members as well as student volunteers.

“This event was outstanding,” said Stewart. “You can really tell the work that went into it. (RPCC) should really be proud of this effort.”

The objective of the grant is to spread word of the importance of 

emergency preparedness.  The students’ final

product – a multimedia CD containing information on emergency preparedness – will be distributed to the K-12 schools in Ascension Parish and made available online to the RPCC community.