A shared belief in hard work, a strong commitment to helping students, and a wonderful amount of collaboration across the Scholarship Team makes a winning combination, as evidenced by the Scholarships Department team being awarded the Staff Appreciation Award for the month of March!

Alex Perez (not pictured), Staff Appreciation Chair of UTSA Staff Council, presented certificates to the Scholarship Team of (left to right) Justin Bingham, Leanne Arispe, Venetia Coleman, Belinda Guevara, Alejandra Gonzalez, Paul Remmert and yours truly (Melanie Martinez).

Very grateful to have such a terrific team dedicated to Roadrunner success!

Submitted by —
Melanie Martinez
Associate Director,
Scholarships

The Staff Development Team welcomed a record number of attendees at this year’s UTSA Student Affairs Conference. Three-hundred seventeen staff from across UTSA and the San Antonio community enjoyed a wide range of educational topics relating to technology, student success, healthy lifestyles and student recruitment.

The success of our conference would not be possible without a great team of Student Affairs Volunteers that helped in sessions throughout the day. We look forward to sharing the full results of conference assessment and a full list of volunteers in the May edition of the VPSA Newsletter.

Submitted by —
Tammy Casas & Steve Kudika
Co-Chairs,
Student Affairs Staff Development Team

United to Serve is a UTSA tradition and system-wide volunteer initiative involving UT System students, faculty, staff, alumni, and student organizations in an effort to engage and mobilize thousands of volunteers in their community.

This year’s 10th annual United to Serve event was held on Saturday, April 5th, 2014. Over 200 UTSA students and staff members went into the San Antonio community and participated in a variety of hands on service projects which benefitted agencies such as Habitat for Humanity, Boys Town Texas, San Antonio State Hospital, International Community Garden of SA, Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas, and many more!

In total 19 projects were completed that benefited 16 non-profit organizations.

The volunteers' hard work was reported on by San Antonio’s KENS 5, and you can see pictures from the day here.

Patrice Hargrove, Resident Engagement Manager at the Eastside Promise Neighborhood, said the following about the group of student and staff volunteers who helped paint a mural to beautify their community center, “Many thanks to the volunteers who came out April 5th! Our staff and community appreciated their time and talents. Everyone was so awesome and interacted beautifully with the children.”

UTSA’s Volunteer Services will host United to Serve again next year during the first weekend of April. Keep a look out for more information on how you can get involved with this annual UTSA tradition.

For more information, please visit the Volunteer Service and VOICES website.

Submitted by —
Cristina Dominguez
Program Coordinator,
Volunteer Services

I wanted to share some unsolicited feedback from our Fraternity & Sorority Life Suggestion Box:

"Amanda Ramon and Jarvis Clark are amazing advisors!"

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Submitted by —
Barry McKinney
Assistant Dean of Students and
Director of Student Activities

The Storytelling Series Luncheon is an event hosted by the Student Leadership Center each semester. The purpose of the luncheon is to bring together UTSA students, faculty, staff and active community members in a casual atmosphere where they can connect and share their leadership stories. Those that attend are given the opportunity to network through sharing leadership ideas, experiences, and challenges.

This spring semester, the Student Leadership Center invited back UTSA Alumni to join the conversation with current UTSA students. Many of the alumni were recent graduates excited to return to their beloved campus and share their experiences, advice, and how their leadership experiences at UTSA have impacted their new careers.

The student facilitators leading this semester’s conversations were: