Dean’s Note

One of the best ways to understand the impact of Hunt College is to look at where our graduates go — and what good they do once they get there.

A degree earned at UTEP moves into industries, nonprofits, and communities. Along the way, it touches people, changes institutions, opens doors, and leaves something behind.

That influence is at the heart of our alumni newsletter, and that influence stretches across generations.

Consider our region's banking community. Kenneth T. Murphy (BBA ’60), Lester Parker (BBA ’67, MBA ’77), Ignacio Urrabazo Jr. (BBA ’70), Margie Salazar (BBA ’97), and Crystal Long (MBA ’14) each carried their education into leadership and service.

Today, Alex Rascón (BBA ’95) continues that lineage as the newly named president and CEO of GECU.

In their individual stories is a larger history of El Paso — careers beginning, industries evolving, and one generation making conditions for the next.

Our influence is not measured only by the names we recognize.

It lives in the people whose names we may never know: An employee given a chance, a family finding stability, or a young professional encouraged by someone who once stood in their place.

Those lives are our history, too.

In this issue, Homecoming brings us back to familiar faces and places, while Alejandro Muñoz reminds us how much experience a graduate can bring home. The Business Administration Building is also evolving, creating new spaces for students to connect.

And today, a record 4,376 students are writing the next chapter of our shared history.

They have ambitions, responsibilities, and lives beyond our classrooms. We cannot know where their degrees will take them, or how many lives they will touch along the way.

That is what makes our alumni community so meaningful. Years pass, yet our time here continues through the people we help, the places we serve, and the opportunities we create.

I hope you see some part of your own history in these stories — and perhaps remember a little of who you were when yours began here.