By Jaymes Grace
Kyley Segers tabling at Pima Community College West Campus.
During the week of Spring Break 2025, the Pima Community College Honors Club will be hosting its ninth presentation of R.I.S.E. (Resources, Information, Services, Education) for Homeless Veterans in the local Tucson community. The event will be held at PCC’s Downtown Campus on March 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Amethyst Room located in the C building.
Overseen by Kyley Segers, department head of the Pima Honors Program, the event is a completely student-led initiative, with it being coordinated and presented by student volunteers. Volunteers work diligently behind the scenes for months to prepare for the one-day event. Many volunteers, including Honors faculty and advisors, attend to lend a helping hand and to be a warm and welcoming face for the event attendees.
The event offers attendees haircuts, hygiene essentials, grooming kits, new and gently used clothing items, blankets, new socks and underwear and non-perishable food items, along with shelter special requests like make-up, jewelry and adult coloring books.
Jaymes Grace, the event’s student lead and reporter for The Pima Post, met up with Segers to talk about R.I.S.E., from its humble beginnings to where the event is now—assisting up to 100 guests.
Q: Hi Kyley, thanks for taking the time to talk with The Post about Honors’ annual R.I.S.E. Event. Can you tell us about how R.I.S.E. got started the very first year?
A: Yeah, so I wasn’t a part of R.I.S.E. for a few years, but I know that we had a few students who were part of Honors who had some different ideas of how to help folks in the homeless community. So what I remember is that we had a student, Garrett Encinas, who wanted to make backpacks to give to folks in need in the community. And so he solicited donations and got, I think, 30 backpacks and he was able to put food and socks and stuff like that in there, and he just handed them out in the community. He was an east campus student. And then, maybe simultaneously, a little fuzzy on details, we had a student, Corinne Anderson, who is a nursing student, who wanted to bring health care to unhoused folks. And so maybe it was the next year we had Ardine Balili, who is another nursing student who took it over and it was at the downtown campus. That’s the first one I remember being really like R.I.S.E. in its current form.
Q: R.I.S.E. has continued to grow over the last few years. Can you share anything that you think are notable additions that brought R.I.S.E to where it is now?
A: Students who are heavily involved in volunteering will kind of bring their own flavor to R.I.S.E. So we are funded by community donations, and so a lot of times our students’ connections will help R.I.S.E. in unexpected ways. So I remember for a few years we had a student who worked in Texas Roadhouse and so we were able to have a catered lunch from Texas Roadhouse along with the event, and that was a big hit. Like Gabby [Encinas)[ with the plarn mats, Corinne with health care and then now you Jaymes, with your connection with the billiards community. So through Clicks Billiards, we’ve been able to do fundraising and bring in almost $10,000 in cash donations.
Q: Because of the scope of R.I.S.E. is considered an endeavor project for the student lead of the project, can you tell us more about that?
A: Yeah, so there’s a scholarship that the honors program helps students with, which is called the All-USA. It is organized by Phi Theta Kappa, which is a national honor society. But you don’t have to be a Phi Theta Kappa member to win. But the kind of big criteria of winning that scholarship is a 3.5 GPA and then a lot of volunteer service and leadership experience. The central essay of the application is to describe where the student has identified some need in the community and then taken steps to exhibit leadership in bringing some solution to fruition that addresses that issue.
And so over the years, R.I.S.E. has been an endeavor project for students for that scholarship. It’s such a big project that sometimes we have multiple students using it for their endeavor project. You know, dividing up duties like logistics, so planning the site and connecting with all of the organizations that will be on site. Tabling could be an endeavor project, while separately gathering donations could be another endeavor project within that event. When students are nominated for the All-USA, which we’re able to nominate 12 students every year, that comes with a 60-credit tuition waiver to NAU, ASU or UofA. So it’s about a $30,000 value.
Q: I’ve heard you speak to this before, where some scholarships get left on the table because there aren’t enough students applying for the All-USA scholarship. Can you speak about that again?
A: So the All-USA scholarship is competitive because it requires a lot of volunteer service and leadership experience and you do have to have a 3.5 GPA to be qualified. So it’s tough to qualify for it to begin with. Also, the application is fairly lengthy, so I think that it’s sometimes daunting to students. The committee really is looking for students to talk about their community involvement, their volunteer service. Through the Honors program, we have scholarship information sessions and essay writing workshops that we give throughout the academic year. We do a lot of mentoring with students on the All-USA scholarship, so we are happy to help.
I think also a lot of students don’t realize how much community involvement they have. So if you have been going to club meetings regularly, like either Pima Business Club or even Dungeons and Dragons—you’re involved. If you are coaching Little League or if you’re involved in Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts as a troop leader, if you’re involved in your PTA Organization, if you’re a part of a religious organization and you have helped with bake sales or clothing drives, that is all volunteering. That could make you a strong candidate for the scholarship. So I think these get left on the table because people might not know about the scholarship, they might not know how big it is. It’s the biggest prize with 60 credits at any Arizona university. And they might undersell how much they volunteer and how qualified they are. So that would be my plug for Honors; don’t be intimidated, we will help you.
Q: R.I.S.E. is seeking your new student lead for R.I.S.E. 2026. What would you like to share with the interested students or students?
A: Yeah, so, you know, at a Community College because most of our students are here for two or three years maybe, if they’re part-time students, we have a lot of turnover and so we’re always looking for new leaders for our projects within the program. For R.I.S.E. specifically, it would be great if we had somebody who is familiar, who’s participated in the past, but we certainly have had situations where somebody new comes in and takes it on. I would say for a project that is this large, it helps to feel very passionate about the cause, and also good organizational skills and time management never hurt.
But we’ve been doing this for a long time, so our advisors are here to help. And we have a lot of tools and a large knowledge base to build off of, so we can definitely do a lot of mentoring and support to anybody who is interested in taking this on. And like I said, every year it’s different. Some years it’s bigger, some years it’s smaller. We can have multiple leaders who can really make a lot of headway. So we’ll kind of take what’s available and work with it and make sure that it’s a great event.
Q. And what do you see when you think of the future R.I.S.E. or would you like to see?
A: Yeah, I don’t really know. I mean, I would love to see it continue and continue to grow. I think that it is such an important mission. It is such a great learning opportunity for students to work in a nonprofit sector kind of project and also to connect with our community and give back. So I will be happy as long as it continues that mission. But it would be great to see where people will take it in the future.
Q: Is there anything that we didn’t touch on either with R.I.S.E. or the upcoming event in March that you’d like to share?
A: We have our fundraiser scheduled, so I wanna encourage people to attend that or volunteer and help us continue with our fundraising efforts.
Thank you to Kyley Segers for taking the time to talk about R.I.S.E. and share information about the All-USA scholarship. R.I.S.E. is still seeking volunteers to help with this year’s event. If you are interested in volunteering, you can find more information on Pima Engage or contact Student Lead Jaymes Grace at [email protected]. The date for this year’s pool tournament fundraiser at Clicks Billards is still to be determined.