By Valentina Ochoa
THIS WEEK AT THE U
Arab Students Union hosts fundraiser for children in Gaza
Throughout the week of Feb. 18, the Arab Student Union hosted a fundraiser on campus, with 100% of the proceeds going towards the Palestine Children Relief Fund.
PCRF is a non-political humanitarian organization dedicated to helping injured and sick children in Palestine and the Middle East, giving them access to adequate healthcare.
One example of the medical attention provided is the Pediatric Cardiac Program where volunteer doctors and nurses operate on children born with heart defects.
Throughout the week, they sold watermelon-themed items such as watermelon candy, snacks, stickers and cupcakes. At their first tabling event, they raised over $500 in two hours.
Watermelons are being used as a symbol for the Palestinian people because the colors mirror the ones on their flag.
ASU will be tabling on Wednesday, Feb. 28, where they will be selling handmade items donated by their members and will be holding a vigil on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
For more information, follow ASU on Instagram @umiamiabsu
IN CASE U MISSED IT
Biden administration continues to crack down on student loans
This Wednesday, Feb. 28, participating students will receive an email announcing the cancellation of their remaining student loan debt– In total, this will cost $1.2 billion.
There are 153,000 student loan borrowers that are enrolled in the new repayment plan created by the Biden administration.
The qualifications for entering the program were if you borrowed less than $12,000 and have made payments for 10 years.
Since the start of his term as president, the Biden administration has canceled $138 billion of federal student loan debt for almost 3.9 million borrowers.
The SAVE debt relief program was supposed to begin at the end of July but the Biden administration stated that it would start ahead of schedule this February.
Space company Intuitive Machine achieves moon landing with IM-1 lander
On Friday, Feb. 23, the company Intuitive Machine was able to land its IM-1 lander, Odysseus, on the lunar surface.
Odysseus is the first commercial spacecraft to soft-land on the moon and the first vehicle made in the United States to land on the lunar surface since the Apollo spacecrafts 51 years ago.
According to the space agency, Odysseus will focus on demonstrating communication, navigation and precision landing technologies and space weather and lunar surface interaction affecting radio astronomy.
Additionally, the students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, created a camera that is now being used on Odysseus. The university confirmed that the camera arrived in one piece.