Life and Perils of an Aspiring Journalist on the Border

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EL PASO — As a journalism student, I don’t think I’ve ever been so humiliated as I was the other day as I was taking some video and a few photos of vehicles and people crossing over the International Bridge of the United States. In the end of October (2009), I was on the verge of completing a story for a news editing class as an assignment. In order to turn it in I needed about two minutes worth of footage mainly of the International Bridge, and to think about it, the article that I was writing had nothing to do with terrorism, Border Patrol, or even drug cartels. The story I was covering was simply about students who cross the bridge every morning to attend the University of Texas at El Paso. Anyhow, back to the morning as I like to call it “the attack accompanied with humiliation”, I walked up to where people in the US pay a few cents to walk over the bridge to Mexico.

Teacher Reassignment Raises Concerns Among Parents and Teachers

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EL PASO — Teachers in the Ysleta Independent School District who have traditionally specialized in a particular subject may be forced to teach classes on topics they have never taught and, according to some teachers and parents, the change may be detrimental to both teaching and learning. These changes went into effect at the start of the 2009-2010 school year. Several teachers, particularly in Riverside High School, were switched from their original teaching position into different subjects designated by the school. Mike Martinez who has been the principal at Riverside High School for three and a half years says reassigning teachers is a positive note and not a mistake. “Reassigning teachers in a school is based on the scores of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test that is given each year to students.

Film Depicts College Life on the Border

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EL PASO — Having to wake up every morning to get ready for school and get to class is something most American college students do not think twice about. But for Mexican students who live across the U.S./Mexico border, this simple task can become a challenging chore, which transports them into a more complex Americanized version of their own culture. Award winning director Maru Buendía-Senties wrote and directed a 29-minute short film based on how students tend to compare their situations and cultures to one another when they come from opposites sides of the border and attend the same university. “Entre Líneas” was filmed on the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) campus and on the El Paso/Ciudad Juárez border. Buendía-Senties is also a UTEP alumnus.