Activities
The university sponsors four key activities during the year:
Open house and UTEP Tour
For the first event of the year students and their parents are shown around the UTEP campus, for most of the parents and students, this is their first look at the inside of a university. They meet successful Hispanic students have an opportunity to ask them questions and get to hear a little about their experiences. Our visitors get a taste of everyday life as a college student by attending classes and participating hands-on laboratories. For the first time, many of the girls and boys begin to think and talk about the possibility of attending college.
Career Day
During the next event, our students and their parents are exposed to dozens of outstanding professional Hispanic professionals. These successful Hispanic professionals become role models for the participants by sharing stories of their own experiences and the sometimes rocky paths, they hope to inspire the young students. This also becomes a great opportunity for students to see explore different career paths, and the interact with the people that chose them.
Leadership Conference
Leadership skills come from experience and involvement in our community, so from the beginning of the school year participants start to work on their community service projects. They work with teachers, district and campus coordinators to identify, plan, carry out and document these projects. During the event, the students present their work in front of their peers to give a sense of importance and closure to their hard work.
Summer Camp and Awards Ceremony
The last event is an impressive day of university activities that gives the students a more in-depth view of campus life. The students and their parents attend selected university classes, seminars and activities to complete the yearly objectives of the program. On the final day, the Mother Daughter-Father Son graduates are honored with a luncheon and presentation of certificates.
OFF-CAMPUS ACTIVITIES
In the months when major events are not scheduled at UTEP, the parents and students participate in activities planned by the school districts that take place in the schools and at various sites in the community.
Community activities introduce the participants to the many resources around them. They may visit Texas Tech Medical Center, City Hall, El Paso’s historic missions, the public library, the El Paso Museum of Art, or they may attend a symphony or participate in a health fair.
Each experience broadens the participants’ development as individuals and community members.
AFTER THE SIXTH GRADE EXPERIENCE
The Mother-Daughter/Father-Son Program’s coordinators maintain an active role in the participants’ lives through the students’ first year of college. The program offers a number of seminars at UTEP for the boys and girls as they move through middle school and high school, as well as academic counseling for 9th and 10th grade girls and college admissions counseling for high school juniors and seniors. Mother-Daughter/Father-Son alumnae also participate in the program’s Career Day and Leadership Conference each year, assisting with the community service projects and serving as young role models for the sixth-grade participants.
A Bright Future
Each year more parents and students who have participated in the Mother-Daughter/Father-Son Program are returning to their neighborhoods and sharing their hope and inspiration with, their families, friends, neighbors and schools. This program is also helping create a brighter future for the El Paso community by helping many of its bright, young Hispanic men and women to realize their potential as future leaders.