UTEP welcomes prospective students at 7th annual ‘Orange and Blue Day’

UTEP’s Centennial Plaza was nearly filled to the brim on Saturday for the school’s 7th-annual Orange and Blue Day.

Nearly 2,000 prospective high school students toured the school and met with different student organizations. The goal is for high schoolers to get a taste of the college life.

Giordano Reyes is a senior, and he will be the first person in his family to attend college in the U.S. He said the event sealed the deal for him.

“It just gives me the feeling of being part of the family,” Reyes said. “I feel like I fit here.”

Reyes plans on studying civil engineering.

“I feel like a good example for my family,” Reyes said.

Senior Kaeani Covington lives in San Antonio, but made it out to El Paso after researching the school.

“Wow, this campus is huge. The students are amazing, my tour guide is amazing. Everything was amazing,” Covington said.

Covington and her parents proudly donned UTEP shirts as they walked through Centennial Plaza.

“I feel like UTEP is my home now,” Covington said.

UTEP was recently recognized as one of the country’s great working-class colleges by The New York Times.

“We understand the students who come to our campus. We value and we take that and put that into the classrooms, put that into our student [organizations], that work ethic, and that resilience within our UTEP and El Paso community,” said Christian Corrales, UTEP director of community relations. “We embrace that.” UTEP officials said the school is expecting over 3,500 new freshman for Fall of 2017.