Silver City, NM- At noon on March 19, 2016, the annual Mustang Showcase kicked off at the Old James Stadium. The event was organized by Matthew Lara, the Director of Admissions, and Devin Stroman, Coordinator of Student Services, and is designed to show-off both the campus and the departments to prospective students hoping to attend in the upcoming Fall semester. An estimated 110 people had registered for the event.
The event started off with lunch, featuring performances by the WNMU Pep Band and a visiting mariachi group from Las Cruces. After a brief speech from President Shepard, welcoming everyone to the event, students then filed into the Graham Gym to speak to representatives from WNMU’s many departments. Among the departments in attendance were Housing and Residence, the School of Education, Expressive Arts, Financial Aid, Humanities and Behavioral Sciences.
Afterwards, the students were divided into groups and taken on a tour throughout the campus. Tour leaders were Student Service Specialists Luis Figueroa, David Kota and Dezmond Wheeler, Esai Rosales of Housing and Residence and Jossette Membrila of Student Services.The tour took students to Harlan Hall and the Department of Natural Sciences, into the Miller Library and through the Student Memorial Building and finally down to the WNMU Bookstore and the Life Lounge.
In the lounge, Luis Figueroa spoke about the importance of students getting involved in campus events, and encouraged students to make the most out of their college experience. He told them that when they finally walk across that stage at graduation, it won’t be memories of classes and homework that they’d have. The tour then took students to the Light Hall patio before the group finally made the long hike to the Mustang Village.
At around three, tour groups started to return to Old James Stadium for scholarship announcements. As the group waited for the last tour to arrive, Dezmond, Luis, Jossette, Vanessa Stroman of Career and Student Services and Marketing Coordinator Alvaro Nunez Alfaro led the attendees in some impromptu dancing, doing the Electric Slide, the Cha Cha Slide, and the Wobble before finishing off with a limbo line.
Once all the tour groups were back together, scholarships were announced and awarded by Matthew Lara and Vanessa Stroman. Many of these scholarships were for out of state students and either helped pay part of their tuition for their first year, or waived it entirely. After the announcements, attendees were free to go, though many stayed and went on more exclusive department tours in Nursing, Math and Computer Sciences and Expressive Arts.
The people in attendance came away feeling both well-informed and better prepared for their college careers but also with an excitement to get started as soon as possible.
