By News and Media Relations

By Jeremy San Miguel

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – MAY 22, 2025 – UTRGV students, staff, faculty, alumni and members of the Valley community grabbed their shovels and came together to support important projects for the Vaqueros Volunteer program. 

The event, organized by the UTRGV Office of Community Engagement, was a beautification effort held Saturday, April 26, at the Robert & Janet Vackar Stadium in Edinburg, and at the Lusena House and Cueto Building in Brownsville.

“This is the fourth year we’ve done Vaqueros Volunteer, and our second year partnered with UTRGV Facilities,” said Dr. Christian Corrales, UTRGV assistant vice president for Community Engagement. “The purpose is to give back to the community, as well as to beautify our campuses and build engagement.”

Volunteers planted an assortment of flowering plants in preparation for the inaugural UTRGV Vaqueros football game, scheduled for the Fall semester.

Among the selected florals, the UTRGV Grounds Maintenance department strategically chose milkweed.

“This is a means of supporting the butterfly land bridge, an unofficial butterfly channel on Raul Longoria Road leading to the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands & World Birding Center,” said Jonathan Fernandez, UTRGV groundskeeper. “We know our volunteers will be excited to know their hard work will be seen by so many people when the games start. They’ll know they played a big part in the experience.”  

Among those volunteers were UTRGV students Angelina Garza, a senior biology major, and Gabriel Presiado, a freshman mechanical engineering major, who both believe that volunteering is rewarding and has a broad impact.

“Today, I am gaining a new experience on planting and flowering, and I’m meeting a bunch of new people,” Garza said. “Volunteering is fun and has meaning.”

Presiado said the time they spent volunteering at the stadium contributes to a broad goal, something everyone can enjoy. 

“The stadium is somewhere where you know thousands of people are going to be visiting, and they’ll see everything we helped accomplish,” he said.

In the Brownsville-led efforts, volunteer beautification efforts included removing weeds, trimming trees and palms, painting benches and light posts, and planting rose bushes.

Evany Treviño, a UTRGV sophomore studying business analytics, said volunteering is important to her.

“It has helped me step out of my comfort zone,” she said, “and I’ve been able to make new friends.”

Beverley Gonzales, program coordinator for the UTRGV Office of Community Engagement, said Vaquero Volunteer efforts are designed to help students contribute to the campus and to the Valley Community, to foster pride and accomplishment in that they're doing.

“We're hoping it will help establish a lifetime of volunteerism for them,” she said.

The volunteer efforts between all sites across the Valley equated to more than 290 hours. To learn more about volunteer opportunities, visit UTRGV Engagement Zone.