We are almost there, three more weeks and we will be done with one more successful semester as UTRGV, but as we move forward to finish this semester, we start to feel the load of exams, projects, presentations, and so on and so forth. We as students feel the stress and think we are the only ones in these shoes, but in reality so do our professors and professional faculty and staff. 

We tend to forget and take for granted all the hard work these individual put in to help us as students. We always focus so much in the negatives perspective and things and don't take the time to appreciate the good things. 

We should take the time to appreciate all the hard work professors and faculty and staff do for us. A lot of the success we have in our lives we owe to our families and of course  to ourselves and our hard work, but we need to not remember that our professors, and faculty and staff have a big contribution to our success as well.

Therefore, I want to take the time to thank them all for their hard work and dedication to now UTRGV and its students, let's leave aside the frustrations of the merge and be thankful for the great opportunities provided and the ones coming our way with this consolidation of the two institutions. 

We are now closed to Vaqueros for the better, and the worse seems to start fading away, with time, hard work, and dedication UTRGV will become its best.

Sometimes what we all need is a little inspirations. In the past few weeks I have felt a little over whelmed with many things I have put on my plate but that I don't regret at all because I know it is all worth it at the end of the day. A good friend has shared this with me and Vaquer@s hang in there, semester is almost over: 

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,When the funds are low and the debts are high,And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,When care is pressing you down a bit-Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,As every one of us sometimes learns,And many a fellow turns aboutWhen he might have won had he stuck it out.Don't give up though the pace seems slow -You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer thanIt seems to a faint and faltering man;Often the struggler has given upWhe he might have captured the victor's cup;And he learned too late when the night came down,How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,And you never can tell how close you are,It might be near when it seems afar;So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

-Annonymous

IT'S ON US

When the semester started, and started this blog, I never thought I would end up writing positive things about the merge, Many students, faculty, and staff, including myself were pretty upset about all the change this brought and how things got difficult to everyone. It seemed as if it was going to be years to begin to see that things where going to begin to change. 

As a student leader, many obstacles were faced through the year, change, is something that as human beings we don't like and out of nature we reject it. It took some time to realize that in order to see progress and see the change we want we must contribute to it. 

Vaqueros, lets stop complaining and lets contribute to this merge, it's on us to to create the future Vaqueros. It is on us to stop the questioning of Vaqueros for better of for worse. 

Vaqueros Getting Better

It is closer and closer to the semester and we can notice that things are stating to change. We can see that time is really helping the merge of UTB and UTPA.

 It is noticeable that UTRGV school spirit and involved student numbers are increasing and the support of faculty and staff seems to be improving. Summer courses just recently opened up but even though they are limited classes being offered it seems that students are happy about the fact thy at they aren't facing as many issues with registration compared to the Fall semester. 

It seemed as if it was going to take UTRGV a few years to accomplish getting everything together but we can see that they are stepping it up and making progress little by little and I believe that not only students faculty and staff can contribute a lot just by being a bit more open minded. If we continue to support and take pride of our university, instead of waiting a few years, we can soon make it to be one of those large prestigious recognized universities.

Post Spring Break

We tend to all be pretty excited when spring break is right around the corner. Beach, sand, ocean,party; what else do college, high school, and apparently now middle school kids think about spring break. Aside from a whole week of no classes, mostly all of these teens think about is concerts, drinking, partying and sometimes safety is the last thing that crosses their mind during these times. 

Lately, personally I'm a bit afraid when spring break is around the corner, just last year in 2015 there was a young man that went missing and was found days later dead, and that head that was found in the water that same week. It seems as if this is going to become a pattern, as this Spring Break 2016 another awful incident occurred again as another teenager went missing and who's body was found days later in a beach in Matamoros right across the border with one of our university's campus. 

What is happening to one of the few beauty's the RGV has, pictures of our island being trashed, people passed out, and people going missing;where are we going to end up? Let's step it up Vaqueros, lets create some change.

That time of the Spring Semester

It's that time of the spring semester; with just a week away from Spring Break, comes a week full of studying, projects, and midterms. You must work hard before a whole week of break. This will probably be one of the weeks were we see the library traffic higher than ever. This last week, during a discussion in on my classes I realized that many of our students are not aware of many of the services our University has to offer them. 

For example, the Learning Assistance Center; which provides tutors for a few different subjects, the Writing center where we can take our writing assignments to receive feedback and suggestions   and a few study rooms located at the Student Union for students use. Scan-trons are a must for many during midterm and finals week, and sometimes a few dollars is expensive for many college students. Student Government Association, SGA provides free scan-trons throughout the year, and all you have to do is take a quick survey.

The University Center Welcome Center and the Student Union Information Desk are a few spots around campus were you can learn about the different services UTRGV has to offer students. 

Let's hang in there and finish strong Vaqueros, remember that it will all be worth it with a full week of break! 

Evenful Week

Enough about the complaining and the issues about the merge in UTRGV. Let's change things up a bit in here and talk about some of the things being programmed around both campuses for the students.

This past week we had our first Homecoming Week as UTRGV, as some might remember this was a tradition for UTPA that has been adopted by UTRGV. It is a week full of events where student orgs compete in different activities for the title of the Grand Champs. Some of the events that took place throughout the week were Picnic with the Vaqueros, Vaquero Olympics, Fired Up; where the burning of the UTRGV letters tooks place, and of course the Homecoming tailgate that included the Cook Off Contest followed by the Men's Basketball game. At the end, after an eventful week for UTRGV's first Homecoming Week, the Grand Champs are Fuerza Latina followed by a tied second place between Kappa Delta Chi and Tau Kappa Epsilon and leaving Phi Iota Alpha in third place

On another note this upcoming week we have another festivity adopted from UTB, Charros Day which is a huge event that takes place every year in Brownsville. The Brownsville campus will be hosting Charreadas this upcoming Thursday February 25th from 11 am to 2 p.m.  Vaqueros go out and support your student orgs as they sale some delicious goodies and have the opportunity to meet this year's Mr. Amigo! 

Could care less...

With a few months away from being a year into UTRGV we begin to see progress but the issues continue.  Just as we have those that complain all the time, we have the ones that could care less.  There has been surveys, polls, etc to take students opinion into actions, but let's be real; out of the thousands of students we have not even a  hundred completes them. How do we expect to create change when not many say much, how do we want our voices to be heard when we don't  speak when we are given the opportunity?

Committees will soon be formed to create our famous mascot, and it will obviously be what the students want. Vaqueros let's get in the ball and start creating the change we want to see. If they ask for our feedback lets start giving our opinions. They're so many things being programmed for us students and we don't take advantage of it. 

This upcoming week will be one of the biggest weeks for UTRGV, Homecoming Week for our basketball teams.  Come out and support our Basketball teams and take advantage of all the great things being programmed for you. Join a full week of activities around campus and of course the free food! 

The UNHAPPY

The merge, the merge, the merge; it seems as if it is all there is to talk about with UTRGV.  We've heard how many were excited for this to happen and it didn't turn out as expected; but aside from those, the rest were not so happy about what UTRGV had to bring for them. UTPA and UTB students had their own issues alone as separate campuses, and the merge didn't make it any easier for them. 

From financial aid, to registration,  to parking, there was always an issue keeping students unhappy. Time was flying by and it seemed as if there was nothing being done to help the students. It is understandable that it is important to create an image for our university, to have a mascot, to create that pride; but first should come the students. Students are the ones that build that pride for their university, for their colors, for their mascot. 

This is where it should all begin, helping the students, for them, for their future. It is impossible to keep everyone happy, of course; but we should try to do more for them.  We need to  work harder on stopping that mentality of the UTB, the UTPA way, the Bucky and Ozzy way.  It shouldn't be either Edinburg and Brownsville, we need to live up to the "We are One", because it is only together that "We Will Inspire the World."  

With the merge came change, with change came denial to the idea of this new university; not leaving space for open mindedness  of the great opportunities  UTRGV has for students. The future sounded so promising to our students but there were many struggles students, faculty, and staff had to face on the way and will face throughout this merge. 

The journey will be long, it is and will be complicated for the next few years, but together, "We are One", and "We Will Inspire the World." There is no more time or room for the unhappy, it's time to start doing something about it. 

We all dislike change period. It takes so long for you to get used to something and therefore you automatically deny, deny, deny when change makes its way in.

 With the merging of UTPA and UTB to UTRGV came nothing but change. Yes, it had been talked about that this was going to happen, but we must say that it ended up happening way too fast. So suddenly that we weren't ready for it, but in reality if we can be honest with ourselves, one will never be ready for change. 

Things felt rushed, from one semester to the next we would become from being UTPA and UTB to U-T-R-G-V! From being BRONCS and OCELOTS to VAQUER@S! Great news to all the students! I mean it's not like Brownsville has gone from being Scorpions, to Ocelots, and now Vaqueros in the past two years. UTRGV which will not only have a location in Edinburg and Brownsville, but an upcoming medical school in Harlingen. YES, a medical school; what better thing could have happened to the RGV education system. Doesn't it sound great? 

Obviously the graduating Class of May 2015, incoming freshman, and new students didn't get affected by the change, but what about the rest of us? The ones that had been here for one, two, or even three years; are pumped and ready to finish their career and suddenly everything has changed in the blink of an eye.

 Classes here classes there, or no class here or no class over there. You now need this class and this one no longer counts towards your degree plan; or even worse, advisement is no longer necessary and you have an incoming lost freshman taking an upper level course. Yes UTRGV, we must be patient, change takes time and you are working on it; but meanwhile where do we go to? Maybe if you would stop for a minute and leave building yourself a brand for a moment, and focus on your students' needs, your image would be easier to build. 

P.S.

Zero Dollars +Social Media +Unhappy Student= Negative Publicity!