She and her two children traveled across Lansing, collecting food stamps and filling out paperwork Friday. At night, they curled underneath a blanket, struggling to sleep as temperatures fell to the 30s.

Robinson and her children made the transformation from MSU students to homeless individuals Friday and Saturday as part of MSU’s first homeless simulation. Robinson, a global and area studies and Chinese senior, joined about 30 students in the event.

“I took a hot shower (Saturday) and it was the best shower of my life,” Robinson said. “It was interesting to see how much we’ve taken for granted.”

The event, hosted by Students for Peace and Justice and Students for Social Work, took more than a year of planning.

Each student was placed into one of four families and went through a series of activities to give them a perspective from an end of society not many college students experience.

“It’s something we can do that’s local, but gets into a lot of root causes and issues of justice,” interdisciplinary humanities junior Rebecca Farnum said. “This is a great opportunity to provide students with a greater awareness of what is going on.”

Farnum sat on a committee that organized the simulation, which included arranging visits with local agencies for the homeless and creating family identities, ranging from a pregnant teenager to a family of refugees.

Barbara Emmons, director of employment services at Capital Area Michigan Works, said the simulation gave students a chance to sample the perspective of a homeless individual.

“To actually go through on a day-to-day basis without housing (and) seeking food and clothing, just your basic daily needs, opens their eyes up,” Emmons said. “Homelessness can hit anyone at any age, education level or skill set.”

Social work senior Allie Hoensheid had limited interaction with the homeless prior to sleeping on newspaper Friday night. Occasionally, she said she watched them rummage through dumpsters outside her apartment. Sometimes she would offer them food. Sometimes not.

“The impression I get as a social work major is there is a boundary between the social worker and the client,” Hoensheid said. “People are scared and they look away and pretend it’s not happening. Just taking the time to get to know them and listening to their story, I think sometimes that’s all they want.”

In addition to becoming homeless, Students for Peace and Justice and Students for Social Work helped the people they imitated. Social work senior Jessica Jensen, president of both groups, said members held a clothing drive in January and collected about 200 items.

A week before the simulation, Jensen said more than 100 canned goods were collected from Chandlers Crossing residents and given to families at Haven House in East Lansing.

“What’s the point of awareness if you’re not going to do anything about it?” sociology senior Brandon McCormick said.