Howard Payne students spend 43 hours confronting poverty through Mission Waco simulation

Four Howard Payne University social work participants spent 43 hours confronting the uncertainty and hardship associated with poverty during Mission Waco’s Poverty Simulation, continuing a program in which HPU has taken part for 15 years.

The group included Shantel Oplotnik, an assistant professor of social work and director of HPU’s social work program, along with students Ivan Flores, Faye Qaisar and Yari Villagomez. Flores is a junior from McAllen, Qaisar is a junior from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Villagomez is a junior from Brownwood.

The experience was intended to help the students see poverty from a different perspective and connect lessons from their social work classes with real-life experiences. During the weekend, the group faced the challenges and uncertainty of poverty, with nearly constant rain making the experience more difficult.

Students experience uncertainty and barriers

Mission Waco’s program gives students a glimpse of what impoverished life can look like while encouraging them to consider the barriers people in their communities face. The HPU participants also worshipped and prayed with the Mission Waco team during the weekend.

“Part of this simulation is the unknown,” Oplotnik said. “When someone is experiencing poverty or homelessness, they often don’t know where they will sleep, where their next meal will come from or what the next day will look like. That uncertainty is exactly what we want students to experience.”

Oplotnik first took part in the simulation in 2019 as an HPU student. Since then, she has continued developing her connection to the program by teaching students about the hardships of poverty and giving them the opportunity to experience a limited portion of those challenges themselves.

“I want students to leave with a better understanding of poverty and more compassion for others,” Oplotnik said. She also said one of the most meaningful parts of the experience was watching students worship with people they might not normally attend church with.

“I hope they saw that church doesn’t have to look like what we’re used to for it to be something truly beautiful and holy,” she said.

Lessons for future social workers

For Oplotnik, the 43-hour experience is intended to stay with students beyond the weekend. “I teach about poverty in the classroom, but experiencing even a small part of it for 43 hours is something you never forget,” she said. She hopes the students remember how they felt and carry empathy and compassion into their work as future social workers.

Qaisar said the simulation made her more aware of the advantages she has and of the obstacles many people face. “Mission Waco is highly rewarding because it helps you truly grasp the barriers that many people in our communities face,” she said. “It challenges you and pushes you to think past your own worldview.”

Qaisar said the experience will influence how she approaches social work, including her understanding that service begins with human connection. “It helped me realize that human connection comes before any professional title, and that every person I work with deserves to be treated with just as much dignity and respect as myself or anyone else,” she said.

She also said the weekend reinforced the importance of advocacy. “Everyone deserves to be heard regardless of their background,” Qaisar said.

Mission Waco’s purpose

According to its website, Mission Waco is a nonprofit organization focused on three goals: empowering poor and marginalized people through Christian-based, holistic and relationship-centered programs; equipping and mobilizing middle-class people to become more compassionately involved among the poor; and engaging with systemic issues of social injustice that oppress poor and marginalized people.

HPU’s Department of Social Work offers more information at www.hputx.edu/socialwork.

Howard Payne University, founded in 1889, is a Christ-centered liberal arts university in Brownwood, Texas. The university says it offers more than 100 majors, minors and pre-professional programs across six schools and serves students at three locations, combining academic programs with personal connection, student life, athletics and service opportunities.