The World Affairs Campus Council wants to help students stay abreast of international affairs and, in turn, grow in their understanding of other world cultures.

Blanca Leticia Pizana de Esparza, sociology instructor, and Dr. Mary Williams, ESL professor and world languages department chair, started the NE Campus student organization last fall. The club currently has more than 70 members.

Pizana de Esparza said the two are looking for more students to get involved in this “intellectually inspiring and rewarding organization.”

“Our TCC students, including the Cornerstone students, have a splendid resource at hand with the WACC,” she said.

The organization hopes to bring a greater awareness and understanding to students of their interconnection to people in other cultures.

David Trevino, NE Campus student and group member, said students need to be more informed about the good things going on around the world.

“Usually in the media, we hear a lot of the more gruesome side of the world,” he said. “We don’t really get to see the good that’s being brought to the world.”

When it comes to politics, council members are willing to get involved in hopes of making a difference.

“A lot of people do not really understand politics, especially when it’s culturally devised in a specific region of the world,” he said. “The members of World Affairs Campus Council see this and are encouraged to voice their positions, especially to our federal and state senators and representatives,” he said.

Madiha Khan, a NE Campus student and WACC member whose father is retired from the embassy, said she plans to continue promoting awareness and following issues on a global level.

“Most of my family works for the United Nations, so I’m quite in touch with current affairs and diplomatic relations,” Khan said. “WACC seemed like the perfect organization for me to get involved in.”

Pizana de Esparza will also serve as an officer and liaison for the WACC at Texas Woman’s University. This will help her provide students on both campuses with more opportunities, especially for TCC students who transfer to the four-year school.

“Dr. Mary Williams and I believe that the World Affairs Campus Council from TWU and TCC’s NE can work together to ease this transition to TWU and at the same time give students the opportunity to stay abreast of social issues and encourage them to stay engaged in global issues,” Pizana de Esparza said.

The World Affairs Council Dallas/Fort Worth, TCC’s parent organization, has been around since the early 1950s. Trevino said the NE Campus club would like to see other four-year universities in North Texas open up a chapter in the WAC-DFW, so students who are at the two-year college level don’t have to let their memberships expire.

“If UNT, TWU and UTA all had one, we could not only work together locally but also work together with other four-year universities and hopefully spread the word and get a greater insight on what that school has to offer,” he said.

To keep its more than 3,000 members connected throughout the Metroplex, the WAC-DFW hosts more than 80 events each year, offering monthly discussion groups on a wide variety of international topics.

“We highly suggest that the members not only become members within the WACC-NE Campus, but also with the WAC of DFW,” Trevino said.

On a local level, the TCC organization focuses on connecting with groups from different backgrounds in a common cause. Last semester, council members performed volunteer work for the Battered Women’s Foundation. They also participated in the Trinity Trash Bash, an annual cleanup event along the Trinity River.

Participation in the council is free. Club participants who wish to become members of the WAC-DFW pay a $25 enrollment fee, which is a discounted price for students and educators.

Trevino said the membership fee goes to a good cause. According to the WAC-DFW Web site, almost 60,000 students in the Metroplex have benefited from the educational materials disbursed.

“The money goes toward educational programs,” he said. “Locally, it helps teachers of social sciences get more information for their students that they can use in their curriculum.”

Contact Information

For more information about the World Affairs Campus Council-TCC NE, contact Pizana de Esparza at 817-515-6039 or blanca.pizanadeesparza@my.tccd.edu. Alternate Web site: http://www.dfwworld.org/