{"id":77729,"date":"2025-12-05T20:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T20:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/77729\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T20:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T20:52:08","slug":"the-places-we-leave-behind-at-utep-the-prospector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/77729\/","title":{"rendered":"The places we leave behind at UTEP \u2013 The Prospector"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As graduation peeks around the corner covered in snow and smelling like hot chocolate. Almost all The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) seniors have a go-to spot on campus to find solace. Many use these key spots to recharge, study, congregate, escape or just simply take a nap to pass time before the next class.<\/p>\n<p>Some seniors go to these areas for their peaceful aesthetics, like senior Oriams Garcia, who is majoring in media advertising.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy favorite spot to be at is in the Interdisciplinary Research Building, as it\u2019s nearby Cotton Memorial where most of my classes are,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n<p>She also mentions how she\u2019ll miss certain areas on campus such as the libary, as she associates it with many memories and has met even friends for the first time in that building.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia continues reflecting on her college experience, dealing with personal losses, but ultimately she found avenues through life-long friendships and participating in the Student Advertising Federation.<\/p>\n<p>After graduation, she hopes to continue working part-time at a marketing agency to someday move somewhere with more nature, one step at a time.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-60911\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_2099-1200x873.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"873\"  \/>Oriams Garcia takes her studies at the Interdisciplinary Research Building. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theprospectordaily.com\/staff_profile\/dustin-perez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dustin Perez<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome advice I would give to upcoming undergraduate students would be that you don\u2019t have to be on a specific timeline,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIf your timeline deviates from someone else\u2019s timeline, it\u2019s okay. College is for you and your future, so even if plans fall through,\u00a0 it won\u2019t be the end of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Taking a b-line towards the studio art department, Nina Rocha is soon graduating with a bachelor\u2019s degree in fine arts with a double major in drawing and painting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe painting studios are a shared space, and my spot where I normally chill and do all my work, even if the work isn\u2019t related to\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 art. It\u2019s reliable.\u201d Rocha said.<\/p>\n<p>Rocha mentions what she\u2019ll miss most from UTEP is the community, who welcomed her with open arms. She also recalls that many of her professors have helped set her on a path where\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 she can pursue her passion for studio art.<\/p>\n<p>Born in Southern California, she plans to move back to big cities like New York or Chicago and\u00a0 continue improving her portfolio for grad school.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, no matter what walk of life people come from, there\u2019ll always be that one spot they go to unwind, study, commute or even call home. Whether you do it alone or with a group of friends, it\u2019s never always boring.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Dustin Perez is contributing cartoonist and may be reached at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theprospectordaily.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"1e7a6e7b6c7b645e7377707b6c6d306b6a7b6e307b7a6b\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-59822\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/PRINT_ISSUE_FEATURE-600x205.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"205\"  \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As graduation peeks around the corner covered in snow and smelling like hot chocolate. Almost all The University&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-77729","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\/77729","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=77729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}