Greetings! My name is Wendy Huang and I’m one of the Basic Needs Marketing and outreach coordinators for the Thrive Comms team. I am a second year economics and accounting major. My job position entails promotion and outreach to the UCSB community about Basic Needs. Something that I’m passionate about is destigmatizing resources/programs that help those in need. I am a low income and first generation college student and have only gotten this far because of assistance programs/resources that helped me along my educational journey. I’m aware of the shame that many participants may feel and many tend to consider programs of this nature as a “free handout”. I want to emphasize that asking for help is nothing to be ashamed of. These programs exist to improve your life, even the playing field and to overall help you succeed as an individual. I strongly encourage all students to look into what Basic Needs has to offer. We address issues like housing insecurity, food insecurity, mental health and many more.