USD Mobilizes ‘Turning Wheel’ Bus to Barrio Logan to Provide Free Internet Access and Community Resources for Families

USD’s Turning Wheel mobile classroom hit the road for the first Turning Wheel Educational Connection - Conecta Educativa event at Cesar Chavez Park in Barrio Logan on Saturday, February 27. The classroom provided complimentary internet access to local families along with additional resources such as free health screenings.

“Through the work of Turning Wheel, and through our objective of trying to live the vision of the University of San Diego to be an anchor institution to our local community partners, we are wanting to provide and meet a need that is really important here in the community of Logan Heights and that is with regards to WIFI connectivity for children and for families that are struggling in order to keep their children in school because of the fact that they’re unable to have good WIFI interaction with their schools and their teachers,” said USD Ethnic Studies Professor Alberto Pulido, director of the Turning Wheel Project.

The event, which followed COVID-19 safety guidelines, invited families from Nativity Prep Academy and the Barrio Logan College Institute to attend the community-serving event that, along with free internet access, provided virtual tutoring help for students, diabetes and hypertension screenings by USD Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science nursing students and goodie bags for attendees with food, backpacks and school supplies, thanks to local donations.

"I think this event is really significant because you have other partnerships," said Josephine Talamantez, board chair of the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center, a key co-sponsor of the event.

"You have the Chicano Federation that has brought out much of the PPE material — masks, gloves, sanitizers. And then you have the San Diego Library that’s brought out books that are accessible. You have Beatrice Zamora who has produced 'The Spirit of Chicano Park' book and that book is being donated to the students. We have student bags furnished by the Girl Scouts San Diego and USD’s Office of Admissions, we have food bags that are available brought to us by Via International — so, it’s all interconnected," she said.

USD Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science Master’s Entry Program in Nursing (MEPN) students also participated in the event to provide health screenings for the public.

“We’re providing hemoglobin AlC, which is a screening diagnostic test for Type II Diabetes and then we’re also providing hypertension screening to the Barrio Logan community,” said Logan Weeks, a second-year MEPN student.

“I think us as nursing students it means a lot to get involved with our communities, especially because we’re going to be serving this population eventually in hospitals or in clinics so it’s really good exposure to get to know the community and see what we might see in the hospitals,” said Paulina Escobedo, first-year MEPN student.

A recent study sponsored by San Diego for Every Child revealed that 100,000 students do not have internet access in San Diego County. Professor Alberto Pulido shared that this project is working to do its part to address this alarming achievement gap.

"This is like that manifestation of what it means to hear what are the needs from the community based on the community’s terms. So it isn’t this idea that learning only happens on campus and the community has to come to USD. The idea of partnership is that we meet on each other’s terms and so that’s what this event is to me — it’s just an example of that kind of partnership and really love,” said Chris Nayve, associate vice president for community engagement and anchor initiatives.

Turning Wheel is a mobile classroom in the form of a 30-foot refurbished motor home, with a goal to teach and serve the local community. The mobile classroom was purchased by the University of San Diego in 2018, in partnership with the Chicano Park Steering Committee, the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center, and is a part of USD’s Strategic Initiative to serve as an anchor institution in the local community, with support from the USD Mulvaney Center for Community, Awareness and Social Action and the USD Department of Ethnic Studies.

You can find more information about the Turning Wheel project here.

— Elena Gomez