{"id":233006,"date":"2026-04-03T05:17:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/233006\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T05:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:17:28","slug":"women-led-organizations-at-utep-are-creating-the-spaces-they-once-needed-the-prospector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/233006\/","title":{"rendered":"Women led organizations at UTEP are creating\u00a0the\u00a0spaces they once needed\u00a0 \u2013 The Prospector"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entering college alone can be a challenge, especially for students who\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0found their niche\u00a0or whose friends have scattered to different schools.\u00a0What is\u00a0supposed to be an exciting new chapter\u00a0can quickly become\u00a0isolating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Across the University of Texas at El Paso\u00a0(UTEP), women\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0just searching for community,\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0building it.\u00a0They are creating organizations that fill personal and professional gaps they once experienced themselves, from volunteer spaces rooted in healing to professional societies reshaping creative industries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Turning grief into service: The Women\u2019s Volunteer Organization<\/p>\n

When\u00a0Karmen Corona, a junior\u00a0at UTEP,\u00a0arrived in\u00a0her first semester,\u00a0many of her closest friends had left the state. Rather than\u00a0sitting\u00a0with\u00a0the loneliness,\u00a0she decided to follow an old dream and create the kind of space she wished had existed for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I created something that I wish I could have joined when I first came in and had no friends,\u201d Corona said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Corona founded the Women\u2019s Volunteer Organization\u00a0(WVO)\u00a0with community at its heart.\u00a0She\u00a0believes that many women genuinely want to be involved in\u00a0their\u00a0communities\u00a0but\u00a0may not know where to\u00a0start,\u00a0something\u00a0her group works to remedy.\u00a0The organization\u00a0hosts\u00a0several events\u00a0each semester,\u00a0ranging from\u00a0pilates\u00a0classes to food bank volunteering and fundraising efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0think women\u00a0are so\u00a0badass. Honestly, I just love women,\u201d Corona said. \u201cI think women\u00a0are capable of so many things\u2026 I feel like women\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0realize how much they can do, more than anything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Instead
\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn collaboration with Celsius, the student-led Women\u2019s Volunteer hosted a recreational community activity \u201cPilates for Puppies,” El Paso, Texas, Feb. 28, 2026. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

For Corona, the group\u00a0represents\u00a0more than community service\u00a0as\u00a0she also\u00a0built the\u00a0organization\u00a0to\u00a0honor her late grandfather.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father figure was\u00a0basically my\u00a0grandpa\u00a0and his way of living life, honestly, it taught me a lot,\u2019 Corona said.\u00a0\u201cHe led life with a lot of kindness.\u00a0So that\u2019s definitely something that has given me a lot of peace.\u00a0Now we have a bunch of girls\u00a0living by\u00a0his\u00a0way of life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

By channeling her grief into something transformative,\u00a0Corona hopes the community she\u00a0built will be\u00a0as fulfilling and healing\u00a0for other\u00a0women\u00a0as it has\u00a0been for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like when I founded the organization, I was\u00a0actually very\u00a0depressed,\u201d Corona said.\u00a0\u201cAnd I feel like I grabbed all of that and turned into something beautiful, and by helping people, it healed something in me.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

What began as a personal journey\u00a0quickly grew into something bigger than herself. Through the organization,\u00a0Corona began to see not just her own strength, but the power that\u00a0emerges\u00a0when women are given the space to lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u00a0only live once.\u00a0Don\u2019t\u00a0waste your time being shy or overthinking things. Just do it,\u201d Corona said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Corona,\u00a0the\u00a0WVO\u00a0is proof of that potential, a space where women turn hardship into action\u00a0and action into impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Redefining\u00a0creative\u00a0marketing: The Media Marketing Society\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Corona\u2019s organization grew from personal healing, the founders of the Media Marketing Society (MMS) were motivated by professional frustration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ivanna Rico, Aylin\u00a0Montanez, Estefania La\u00a0Torre\u00a0and Fernanda Montes found themselves drawn\u00a0to\u00a0the creative side of\u00a0marketing. Something\u00a0they felt was underrepresented within UTEP\u2019s\u00a0Woody L. Hunt\u00a0College of\u00a0Business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the university already had a chapter of the American Marketing Association, Montanez said it focused more on the analytical and corporate fields of the industry, leaving little room for\u00a0creative-minded students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized it didn\u2019t meet the needs of what we wanted to focus on for our marketing career,\u201d Montanez said. \u201cWe realized\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0more marketing on the creative side than just maybe photography and videography. We wanted to fill that gap.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

From that gap,\u00a0Montanez and her co-founders\u00a0were\u00a0inspired to carve out a space for themselves\u00a0and other students interested in\u00a0creative\u00a0marketing.\u00a0They\u00a0built\u00a0the\u00a0MMS to provide\u00a0members with\u00a0hands-on professional experience\u00a0for\u00a0their future careers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main goal as an organization\u00a0is that we want\u00a0to provide members with professional\u00a0experiences. We focus a lot on that, and put professional experiences, development events are\u00a0really niche,\u00a0really\u00a0cool\u00a0and\u00a0really special,\u201d\u00a0Montes, the MMS president,\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Instead
\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Media Marketing Society is a woman-led organization within the Woody L. Hunt College of Business designed to help students in the dynamic fields of media and marketing through networking opportunities and hands-on experiences, El Paso, Texas, on March 3, 2026. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Starting with just four founders and a handful of\u00a0friends,\u00a0the\u00a0organization\u00a0initially struggled to attract committed members.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe progress\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0made in our two years has been\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0kept\u00a0us going,\u201d Montanez said.\u00a0\u201cI remember people stopped going to meetings. We had like five members and at the end it was just us going because it was important to us and we wanted to grow.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now\u00a0their\u00a0meetings are full, a testament not only to their growth but\u00a0also\u00a0to the presence of women in creative marketing, a field where their work is often undervalued despite their dominance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think women carry the marketing industry, and\u00a0actually in\u00a0our meetings most of them are women,\u201d\u00a0Montes\u00a0said. \u201cBut\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0also really underpaid, underrecognized. Women are there, and I think\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0partly recognized, but not to the extent they should be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For\u00a0Hernandez,\u00a0one of\u00a0the organization\u2019s\u00a0first members and\u00a0its\u00a0community service director,\u00a0the\u00a0group\u00a0has been a space to build confidence, professional\u00a0skills\u00a0and connections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel much more confident. Meeting people in marketing has helped me a lot,\u201d\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0said. \u201cIt was a fun environment, and\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0what made me want to go to the meetings. Before MMS, I felt like I was just there. I used to think of myself as,\u00a0\u2018okay, I can do this, but\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0not creative.\u2019\u00a0MMS did this switch on my mind, and I knew I was capable of a lot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hernandez\u2019s experience\u00a0shows how\u00a0society\u00a0not only works\u00a0to\u00a0fill a professional gap but also empowers\u00a0its\u00a0members to\u00a0develop\u00a0their skills and leadership beyond the classroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As organizations like WVO and the MMS continue to grow, they reflect a broader shift happening across campus, where students are no longer waiting for opportunities or spaces to appear, but are creating them on their own terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the women behind these groups, what started as responses to loneliness,\u00a0grief\u00a0or professional gaps has evolved into lasting communities that support, empower and uplift others.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In\u00a0building\u00a0the\u00a0spaces\u00a0they once needed, they are ensuring that future students\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0have to search as hard to find where they belong.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jewel Ocampo is a staff reporter and may be reached at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering college alone can be a challenge, especially for students who\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0found their niche\u00a0or whose friends have scattered to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-233006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}