Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law (Thurgood Marshall Law) reserves the right to be proud during the Thanksgiving season. Expressing heartfelt thanks and great compassion for others are sheer understatements for Thurgood Marshall Law’s_ Student Bar Association (SBA), the student governance body of the law school, as they stepped away from student advocacy to impart acts of kindness and community service to Houston-area residents and health care workers. On Friday, November 19, the law school’s SBA board of directors demonstrated university Tiger pride and sincere gratitude to emergency room essential employees at Texas Medical Center’s Be_n_ Ta_u_b_ Hospital, Memorial Hermann Hospital and Houston Methodist Hospital, by presenting them thank you cards and gifting warm cookies from Tiff’s Tr_e_a_t_s_® for their selflessness, tireless efforts, and continual dedication on the front line of health care during the Covid-19 pandemic. The three-area hospital picks by the SBA board were selected after witnessing a vast number of heartbreaking videos featuring nurses and doctors sharing thoughts and feelings of being undervalued and overworked due to short staffing during the pandemic period.

Thurgood Marshall Law SBA’s leadership in service and community giving continues today, with donations of Thanksgiving food baskets and toiletries to three needy families residing in the Cuney Homes, located across from the campus of Texas Southern University in the heart of Houston’s Third Ward District. “Texas Southern University is a pillar of higher education and neighbor to the Cuney Homes in the Third Ward community,” said Sydney Sexton, president of the Thurgood Marshall Law SBA board of directors. “As_ an_ HB_C_U_, we understand and acknowledge the importance of family, so it is our desire to gift food and ancillary items to needy families right in the heart of our community, to provide a worry-free, expense-free Thanksgiving and opportunity for them to fully focus on enjoying their loved ones. Our community service initiatives this week have privileged our board members to use our leadership skills to build stronger relationships within our school and community. As the student governance body of Thurgood Marshall Law, we want to ensure our city appreciates not only our school’s_ historical relevance, but acknowledges how much we not only care about our university and law school constituency, but our community members, we well.” Thurgood Marshall Law SBA Board of Directors include: Sydney Sexton, president; Frank Achonye, vice president; Darianne Young, secretary; Sonia Merrikh, treasurer; Aisha Martinez, parliamentarian; Ashley Lewis, general counsel; ; Lorraine Olutu and Kaila Washington, press secretary; Ashney Shelley, sergeant-at-arms; Kennedy Johnson, chief of staff; Shaneil Snipe, historian; Markicia Horton, 3L class president; Christina Vernet, 2L class president; Tedrick Hawkins, Mr. TMSL; and, Kyara Murry, Miss TMSL.