Teaching and Learning and Caring Blog
EL PASO — They gave medallions to graduating students and faculty in honor of the 100,000th student to graduate from UTEP. Medallions are available for sale every year, and the proceeds go to a scholarship fund, but this 100,000th was a big deal. When you think about it, it is a big deal.
I arrive at the designated time to wait in the women’s basketball practice gym with other faculty members. It’s nice to see them. We drink coffee and tea and shoot the breeze while waiting. As the time for us to march into the Don Haskins Center, someone tries to organize us into two lines, by seniority, with our medallions underneath our hoods, which aren’t really hoods at all. He promises to check to make sure we have done it right. We pay him no mind and line up in crooked, haphazard fashion, still blabbing with each other.
Maggie Nelan, Class of 2011. (Courtesy of Maggie Nelan.)
Graduation is not only a special event for the students and their families; it is also special to the faculty that mentored and shepherded their students. Releasing them into the working world or sending them on to another university for further study is an emotional event for us too. As the brother of one of our graduate students told me at the requisite party after the ceremony: “You played all of the roles—villain, hero, sympathizer, task master.” It does feel like that.
Four of my students who comprised this 100,000th class walked across the stage and received a Master’s degree in Sociology. Three were undergraduates in my classes. I am there for them and a handful of other students. Three of the M.A. students are going on to Ph.D. programs, all expenses paid, so to speak. The fourth, Beto, is staying in El Paso partly because his wife, Natalia is in a Ph.D. program in psychology here. Maggie is going to Delaware, Eli to Ohio, and Alma to my Alma Mater, University of New Mexico.
Beto Oronoz and Cheryl. (Courtesy of Natalia Strobach)
Julian is receiving a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice. He has two young sons and brought me an invitation to the ceremony over a month ago. The champion boxer Abe was also in this group. I got to see Tony and David at a departmental luncheon honoring graduates a week earlier. David and I were both at the César Chávez march. Shy Martín and “spaghetti Friday” Michael each received a degree in Psychology. Brandon got his degree in Theatre. Michael of Lusitania got a Master’s in English, but I had him in an undergraduate Methods class. We had some prior exchanges about his thesis topic, Cormac McCarthy. Cormac made West Texas “cool” for him, and I didn’t like the dude, despite having read all his books.
Alma Hernandez. (Courtesy of Sanndra Ramirez.)
There were three surprises: two who were at the ceremony and one who was not. “Paintball” Ricky was a student of mine in his freshman year. I taught freshman seminar. As he passed by on his way out of the Don, I hugged him and he told me I was his first teacher at UTEP who didn’t let him be a slacker. His degree is in Organizational and Corporate Communication. Pati was a Communication graduate student years ago, but life kept getting in the way of her completion. I was even on her committee at one point. We were surprised to see each other. She thinking I was retired and out of the picture and I thinking she would never finish. What a wonderful surprise! “Mr. Intensity” Michael graduated with a degree in History, but I didn’t see him at the ceremony, and I would certainly have pricked up my ears at the sound of his last name. But there he was, listed in the program, with honors.
I have a few more students who graduated in this ceremony and a few more in the pipeline. I will be attending a few more ceremonies. But for now, I am proud and happy for the ones who graduated in this ceremony and received their 100,000th medallion. May some leave and carry the border to other places. May some leave and come back with new ideas, and may some stay, find jobs and families, and raise the next batch of UTEP graduates. Qué les vaya bien.
David McKenney and Cheryl at Cesar Chavez March. (Courtesy of Jose Angel Maldonado.)
