UTSA received the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for the following categories:

• General Service and Education

Read all about it in this month's 4C's Article!

Submitted by —
Yvonne Peña,
Assistant Dean of Students

As a semester filled with Homecoming decorating, Etiquette dinners, and a 25-year Reunion comes to a close, the UTSA Ambassadors end another chapter of service to the University with their Holiday Graduation Party.

Be sure to check out January's Spotlight section for an in-depth look at the UTSA Ambassadors program.

Submitted by —
Dr. Pat Graham,
Executive Director,
Special Events Center

UTSA VOICES (Volunteer Organization Involving Community Education and Service), hosted, for the 15th year, the Oxfam Hunger Banquet. An educational dining experience emphasizing real-life food choices faced by people across different income levels (high-income, middle income, and low-income). This year 183 student, faculty, and staff participated in the experiential program.

Students enrolled in the First Year Experience Academic Inquiry and Scholarship (AIS) course, and many more, participated in the event. This year, the AIS course is focusing on "food deserts": areas in urban environments, where members of the community have difficulty purchasing affordable or good-quality fresh food. The OXFAM Hunger Banquet also highlighted different types of hunger, ranging from senior hunger to rural and suburban hunger.

The interactive section of the event was touching, when true life occurrences changed the income level of the participants, (for example, a high income participant loses their job and now must live with a lower income). There were moments during the banquet in which students from different income tiers shared food with one from different income levels.

Guest speaker Dough Ewers, UTSA '14 and Food Drive Coordinator for the San Antonio Food Bank, shared information about hunger in San Antonio and Texas, which has the 3^rd highest rate of hunger in the nation.

Please enjoy these pictures of the event.

For more information, please contact The Student Center for Community Engagement or Inclusion or for service projects contact Volunteer Services at 210-458-7291.

Submitted by —
Katiuzca Loaiza,
Graduate Assistant,
Volunteer Services

Click images to enlarge

On Tuesday, November 25, members of the UTSA Football and Men's and Women’s basketball teams joined with Student Activities and Roadrunner Productions to host the first ever “Pie on the Paseo” event.

Football team members handed out slices of pumpkin, pecan, and apple pie while basketball team members served hot cocoa. Over 30 pies (240 slices) were handed out within the first 30 minutes! In total, over 50 pies (approximately 400 slices) and 15 gallons of hot coco were handed out.

The football team encouraged students, faculty and staff to attend the last home football game and thanked them for their support throughout the 2014 season. Both basketball teams encouraged attendance at their home games.

To view photos from the event visit the Pie on the Paseo album on the UTSA Student Activities Facebook page.

Submitted by —
Lydia Bueno
Associate Director,
Student Activities

Larry Mitchell form Kohl’s making the opening Keynote address at the Recruiters’ Forum.

Recruiters’ Forum Discussion Group – “Building an Effective On-Campus Recruiting Program.”

Click images to enlarge

On December 4^th, hiring managers and recruiters from 31 organizations attended a Recruiters’ Forum hosted and conducted by the UTSA University Career Center. The event was held at the Omni San Antonio Colonnade Hotel.

The event featured a number of speakers and included opening and closing keynote addresses, a focus group/feedback session, breakout sessions on Diversity Recruiting, Legal Compliance in Recruiting, Military Veteran Recruiting and Building an Effective Internship Program. The group reconvened in general session for a presentation on Building an Effective On-Campus Recruiting Program.

Feedback received from attendees was excellent, and included comments such as:

• “I want to take a moment to thank you and your staff for an outstanding job today with the Recruiters Forum. I had no idea as to what to expect, however, I was extremely surprised how elaborate it was. I know it took lots of time, effort and money to put this on and know that we greatly appreciated the knowledge gained and what we took away. It was above and beyond any expectations that I had and am thankful to your staff for everything put into this. What an awesome team to be part of!”
• “Thank you so much for allowing me to attend the Recruiters’ Forum. The speakers were excellent with a wealth of information. It was informative and educational. Again, thank you!”

Submitted by —
Morris Ellington,
Program Manager,
Career Center

The Student Leadership Center collaborated with Fraternity and Sorority Life to host the Fall Storytelling Luncheon Series on November 20. The luncheon theme was, "Leadership and values in fraternal organizations."

Alumni at the luncheon included: Ms. Elisa Perkins, Assistant Director for Diversity Recruitment; Ms. Heather Green, Director for Development Communications; B.J. Winston, Outreach Coordinator with Worldwide Clinical Trials, and Nathan McDuell, Volunteer Coordinator with the Center for Healthcare Services. We were honored to welcome these amazing leaders to our university and learn from their leadership experience.

Among the student attendees were 10 facilitators helping to guide the table discussions around leadership styles, qualities and experiences. These student facilitators included; Cinthya Garcia, Katiuzca Loaiza, Raven Bradley, Brelyn Donato, Sage Sanders, Luisa Castro, Matt Kenny, Margot Perez, Susanna Mancera, and Fez Jameel. The diversity among the students helped provide the students with different perspectives on various issues, as well as the opportunity to learn the leadership stories of students in different organizations.

We received great feedback, including:

• “It was good to bring different members of different councils together to talk and brainstorm ideas. We were able to learn about each other, we found a lot of ways we were similar and different. We were also able to discuss ways we can collaborate together in the future.” – Destiny Jones, Senior Kinesiology Major
• “I got to meet students from other chapters and learn about their value and leadership skill sets and I got feedback that I can use in my chapter.” – Cameron Shieb, Sophomore Business Administration Major

The Storytelling Series Luncheon is held once a semester. The next luncheon will be during the spring semester 2015. If you are interested in attending please contact Vincent Perez, Program Coordinator for the Student Leadership Center.

Submitted by —
Vincent Perez
Program Coordinator,
Student Leadership Development