Before the list of graduation candidates was read during Sunday’s commencement at the University of Texas at Paso (UTEP), interim Provost John Wiebe took a moment to recognize the outstanding contributions of President Diana Natalicio, who oversaw growth in enrollment, facilities, and research expenditures during her 31-year tenure. The weekend ceremony, which recognized candidates from UTEP colleges of Engineering and Science, was the very last commencement presided over by President Natalicio.
Natalicio became an assistant professor at UTEP in 1971 and was named the first female president of the university on February 11, 1988. She announced her retirement in May 2018.
“Class of 2019, a majority of you are from this region,” Natalicio said in her final presentation. “You are proof that great things happen in communities where talented young people from a broad range of backgrounds are afforded respect and authentic opportunities to achieve their dreams, and where educators from school districts, the community college, and the University work collaboratively to create conditions for all talented young people to achieve their full potential.”
“Powerful photo!” wrote Jaime Aquino on Facebook. “Forever grateful to her for all the good things she brought to our university. #GoMiners.”
‘Top Ten Seniors for 2019’
Recently, UTEP announced its Top Ten Seniors for 2019. The awards are presented by The University of Texas at El Paso Alumni Association to UTEP’s most promising future alumni.
“The Top Ten Seniors Award celebrates those students who, through their talent, hard work, and sacrifice, embody UTEP’s mission of excellence,” said Maribel Villalva, assistant vice president for UTEP’s Office of Alumni Relations. “This year’s award recipients have very diverse backgrounds and they all took very different roads to earn this honor.” Learn more about the 2019 UTEP Top Ten Seniors here.
‘Outstanding Students for STEM Ph.Ds’
In related news, Isabel Barraza, a senior chemistry major, and Jaime E. Regis, a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering, were selected for a program that supports outstanding undergraduate and graduate students who are or will be pursuing doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) or STEM education.
“We are elated that UTEP students are being recognized by the National Science Foundation,” said Dr. Roberto A. Osegueda, UTEP’s vice president for research in a statement. “UTEP is a top 10 feeder school for Hispanic doctorates.”
Barraza, who will enter graduate school this fall at the University of California, Santa Barbara, began undergraduate research as a freshman at UTEP as a member of the First Year Research Intensive Sequence (FYRIS) program, and she started volunteering in a formal research laboratory during her first semester.
This led her to a summer internship at Malawi Polytechnic in Africa developing water treatment technologies. Back at UTEP, she earned a Maximizing Access to Research Careers scholarship. Her interests in clean energy led her to spend two summers at Stanford University and one semester at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. She credits being able to take advantage of many of these opportunities to starting undergraduate research so early.
“It’s such a great honor to be able to do this as a student from UTEP,” Barraza said. “That I was able to get this fellowship. I am proud to represent UTEP as a Hispanic woman. It frees me up from being a teaching assistant and it allows me to focus on my research and to further contribute to the community through outreach.”
For Regis, who will pursue his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at UTEP, he arrived at UTEP with its Presidential Scholarship. He quickly found a passion for research through experiences with the Army High-Performance Computing Research Center Summer Institute at Stanford University and with UTEP’s NASA MIRO Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research (cSETR).
Most recently, Regis has worked with a group in the Functional and Energy Material Systems (FEMS) Lab, where he is developing functional composites fabricated through 3D printing. Regis also dedicated time to tutoring peers at the university’s Advancement Center for Engineering Students. He conducted outreach to the area’s K-12 students as part of the NSF’s Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) program.
“Seeing that someone in the family made it through college has motivated my younger siblings to want to become something more, Regis said. “Ultimately, if I can reach my career goal and become a STEM professor, I will impact many more students in minority communities and develop a pipeline for the next-generation STEM workforce.”
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