Home Away From Home with Kasandra

Transcript

Let’s meet Kasandra. She’s in the Speech-Language Pathology Program and she came to UTEP from Midland, Texas at only 17 years old. Being new to a place can be kind of scary. Will you make new friends? Will you feel at home? Kasandra, tell us about your campus experience. Take it away.

– Thanks, Alex, and welcome to UTEP. No matter where you’re from or what you look like, the UTEP community really wants everyone to know that they are indeed welcome. I hope you feel the love while you’re here. I know I do. Graduating a year early from high school, I knew I wanted to attend a college that offered an excellent speech language pathology program and felt like home away from home. The University of Texas at El Paso was a college just for me. Leaving behind my family at 17 during the COVID Pandemic did not stop me from falling in love with UTEP. Living on campus, I made amazing friends and memories that I’ll never forget with the friendly people, the mountain views, a binational culture and not to mention, the tacos. UTEP gave me a sense of belonging and I had no problem adjusting. Another thing I really love about UTEP are the opportunities to do amazing things. My second year at UTEP, I became a resident assistant at the dorms. Being an RA was really rewarding. I met so many different people with different backgrounds and I grew a passion for helping others. When you work on campus at UTEP, the supportive supervisors understand that academics come first and are very flexible. Working as an RA, I learned important skills in interpersonal communication and time management. That will be super helpful when I graduate and become a speech pathologist. One of the coolest academic experiences I’ve had at UTEP was being able to work as an undergraduate on groundbreaking research on bilingual children who stutter. Moving to El Paso to study at UTEP was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. That’s it for me. Back to you, Alex.

– New friends experiences, opportunities, and did we hear you say tacos? We’ve heard that El Paso has the world’s best tacos from a lot of students since arriving. We’re so glad UTEP made you feel welcome and that you’re looking forward to helping others in your speech pathology career. Thank you for sharing your story, Kasandra. That was amazing.