A Message from the Assistant Vice President for Outreach & Student Access
On behalf of the Outreach and Student Access department, I welcome our entire border community to explore the many ways UTEP continues to invest in our region by providing and making accessible the highest quality college education to current and prospective students.
Our department is home to 9 outreach programs - Early College High School Academic Success Center, Educational Talent Search, Gear Up, High School Equivalency Program, Innovation in Outreach, Mother Daughter/Father Son Program, Student Support Services Program, Upward Bound and the College Assistance Migrant Program. Each of these programs has a long and established history of helping students prepare for and succeed in college. And our programs continue to evolve, integrating educational trends that are making college more affordable, such as early college high schools and dual credit models.
A key facet of UTEP's mission is to increase access to higher education for all students in the greater El Paso area that want to earn a college degree. For 25 years the El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence (EPCAE) has been instrumental in bringing together our region's civic, business and educational leadership to take a collective approach at improving college readiness, as well as broadening access to higher education for students. Over the last quarter century, student enrollment at El Paso Community College and UTEP has consistently climbed each year. And the number of college degrees awarded has risen three-fold. While we celebrate these achievements and we are very proud that EPCAE has become a national model, we never lose sight of the important work ahead, striving to do more for students in our community.
UTEP has long recognized that many of the life challenges our students share, such as working full-time/part-time jobs while in school, fulfilling significant commitments and obligations to family, as well as navigating the bilingual and binational region they call home, have afforded them valuable learning opportunities throughout their lives. We strongly believe that our students’ life experiences have served to awaken talents, to develop important skills, and to instill and strengthen work ethics that better prepare them for successful professional careers. Our university fully embraces all of these student attributes and seeks to build on them to create and deliver a better and more rewarding college experience through the UTEP Edge.
Our university’s commitment extends further to improving the economic future of this borderland by investing in K-12 outreach activities that promote college awareness through the sciences, arts and humanities. Advancing technologies provide students with ever-growing platforms that allow them to explore and connect with potential careers during their primary and secondary education. The arts and humanities have long evoked wonder and inspired creativity in youth. UTEP recognizes that vibrant and diverse civic cultural institutions are essential to our region’s economic development and sustainability; because these institutions significantly improve the quality of life for all El Pasoans and attract leading professionals to our city.
In closing, I would like to thank our community and funding partners that continue to help UTEP achieve its mission. Among these are the twelve regional school districts, El Paso Community College, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Greater Texas Foundation, The Meadows Foundation, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, El Paso Branch, to name a few.
Go Miners!
Ivette Savina