The United in Service Initiative (UISI) is a newly formed, local volunteer organization working towards making a positive impact in the El Paso community. Founded in Apr. 2021 by senior Rodrigo Perez, the UISI has engaged in various environmental clean up and charity donation drives throughout the community this past summer.

The UISI was founded to give high school students an opportunity to engage in community service and make a positive impact while meeting other like-minded students from all over the city.

“After volunteering around my freshman and sophomore year, I started seeing that you could really accomplish a lot with a volunteer group and do something positive for the community,” said founder Rodrigo Perez. “And after that, I wanted to start an organization just to do something like that”.

Although the organization’s focus is primarily on engaging in service, they also make an effort to always have fun doing it.

“We get the job done but everyone is having a good time. The vibe is just really cool,” said UISI photographer Khalid Abdeljaber.

So far, they have completed service projects such as cleaning up a local community center and beautifying the Franklin Mountains State Park.

“When we went to the Franklin Mountains, we picked up trash for almost two hours,” said Public Relations Director Marco Grijalva. “But it’s not like you’re just working, you get to actually talk with a bunch of cool people”.

Even though the initiative got its start among Coronado students, its members come from all over the city.

“The cool thing about the UISI is that it’s not bound to any one school. We have members from Franklin, El Paso High, Coronado, and Cathedral,” Perez said. “Anyone from any school can join, you don’t even have to be a high schooler”.

This year the UISI hopes to engage in many more service opportunities to help make the community a better place.

“We really want to engage in more projects this year and get more recognition as an organization,” Perez said. “If we as a group are recognized and respected more we can start projects with even more impact.”

They also hope to see a rise in membership so the organization can continue after the founding members leave for college.

“We hope to help the community even more this year by recruiting more underclassmen so that they can continue with UISI in the future, ” Grijalva said.

Students from any grade and any school are encouraged to join the United In Service Initiative if they are interested in engaging in service projects and giving back to the community. The UISI recommends direct messaging their Instagram page @uisi_org for more information on how to join.