New London native, Quinnipiac class travel to Puerto Rico

Sociology students plan to help with ongoing hurricane recovery efforts

New London — Hurricane Maria has altered the focus of a longplanned trip to Puerto Rico for Quinnipiac University students involved in a travel abroad program.

While it’s still an educational trip, New London native Deisha Quinones and seven other sociology students traveling with staff to Puerto Rico this week plan to pitch in on the ongoing recovery efforts in the storm-ravaged U.S. Territory. Puerto Rico was severely battered by Hurricane Maria in September, leading to widespread damage and power outages that still linger.

“For many of us, this is a particularly important and emotional trip,” said Margarita Diaz, a native of Puerto Rico and an associate professor of journalism at Quinnipiac in Hamden.

Diaz said some of the students have extended family in Puerto Rico and so the visit is not only a way to help but to get a firsthand view of how the island is recovering.

The group of students will be based in San Juan and volunteering with CARAS de las Américas, a nonprofit organization that has coordinated afterschool educational projects and is undertaking program to restore mangroves, small trees or shrubs found in tropical saltwater areas. The organization performs community work in San Juan, Catano and Guaynabo.

Mangroves play an important role in Puerto Rico’s ecological system, providing habitats and protections for marine life and birds, slowing erosion and filtering water, Diaz said.

Diaz is traveling as a chaperone and carrying with her supplies and educational materials — things like solar-powered lamps, microscopes,

biology kits, books and rechargeable flashlights. The items were purchased with money raised through fundraisers over the past several months.

Quinones, 21, a St. Bernard School graduate and senior at Quinnipiac, said she was excited and “a little less nervous” to go back, having visited Puerto Rico just last week to attend the funeral of her grandfather.

While electricity and running water is spotty, especially in the mountainous areas, Quinones said condition in the places she visited were not quite as bad as she thought they might be. She has family in the Sabana Grande, Yauco and Ponce areas.

“I feel a little more at ease,” she said about the upcoming trip. “I was nervous and wasn’t sure about the conditions.”