2008 Woodie Awards
My life as a UTEP college student
Gabriela Burgos
Issue date: 12/6/07 Section: News
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Ovalle was born and raised in Ciudad Chihuahua, Mexico. After graduating from high school, she had planned to attend the Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua with her friends, but her parents decided to send her to UTEP because of a scholarship opportunity.
"My parents took that decision regardless of what I wanted to do. They only thought about my future," Ovalle said.
In her first semester at UTEP, she lived with her father, who was studying for his doctorate at New Mexico State University.
"My dad had to drive every day to school and back to the apartment, but he got tired and, for my second semester, I had to find roommates because he moved to Las Cruces," Ovalle said. "That's when I met Maria Renee and Adriana, my two roommates for the past four years."
Ovalle said that her biggest challenge was learning English.
"I wanted to get a job on campus, but, as an international student, it was hard to find one," Ovalle said. "You need to have a lot of contacts that can help you get a job."
She finally heard about a summer position as an orientation leader and her roommate convinced her to apply for the job. Ovalle began working the summer 2005.
"I got involved with school, learned new things about UTEP, met a lot of people and made some good friends," she said. "It also changed my attitude toward UTEP and El Paso. I learned exceptional things that summer."
It was during that summer that Ovalle took another big step. She changed her major from marketing to advertising.
"This is when I met my three 'Lady Bugs' (Roselyn Reynoso, senior advertising major, Yadira Puente, senior advertising major, and Sara Geller, a graduate student in advertising), three friends that have supported me in all aspects of my college life," she said.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 6
Jessica
posted 12/12/07 @ 1:32 PM MST
Felicidades Gabriela, que bonito articulo de mi hermana escribiste.
Muchas felicidades a las Dos,
Animo
jesy_06
jessica
posted 12/12/07 @ 1:36 PM MST
Gabriela,Muchas felicidades tu articulo sobre mi hermanita esta hermoso
Muchas felicidades Hermanita, sales bella
Elisa Espinosa
posted 12/18/07 @ 8:49 AM MST
I just wanted to make a comment about the Office of International Programs.
I also had to ask several professors for a letter of recommendation, I had to fill out a lot of forms and it really took a long time, but in my opinion all the staff that works at the office of international programs are very helpful. (Continued…)
Raquel Pereira
posted 3/20/08 @ 12:35 PM MST
Gabrielita! Que orgullo de amigas! El articulo esta increible, y la vida de Cristina muy emocionante. Jejeje. Muy bien chicas. Me hizo mucha ilusion poder leer el articulo. (Continued…)
Kris
posted 3/26/08 @ 9:44 AM MST
Gabriela:
I strongly oppose to your comments about office of International Programs. Being myself an international student for 7 years, the office was very helpful to me in all aspects. (Continued…)
myself
posted 6/30/08 @ 11:34 PM MST
I really had bad experiences with this office, and my question here is if the office is bad with all internationals students or just with mexicans, because i have other friends that are agree with me. (Continued…)
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