A virtual twist on Vaquero tradition

Plain White T’s to headline The Stomp’s concert

UTRGV students participate in the Herd Rumble during the Fall 2019 Best Week Ever. Best Week Ever is the official welcoming experience for students. The series of activities to welcome students will take place online this week. Students can socialize with other students, learn about valuable campus resources, and celebrate UTRGV’s culture and traditions. It will be the fifth year of the celebration of Best Week Ever and the first year it will be hosted online.
**Photos Courtesy UTRGV Marketing and Communications**

Jacqueline Peraza | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Student Activities has modified this year’s Best Week Ever to welcome Vaqueros back to campus while celebrating UTRGV’s fifth anniversary and continuing to ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff.

According to the Student Activities’ event page, “Best Week Ever is your chance to meet fellow Vaqueros, participate in campus traditions, and get excited about the next step of your academic journey.”

The week long celebration will kick off today and end Friday.

Its signature event, The Stomp, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday and will be open for students, faculty, staff and the community to attend.

“[The Stomp] is a celebration of coming back to school. … We have student organizations, university departments and colleges gather at one location, turning it into this huge event on campus, but due to COVID-19, we’ve had to make some slight changes,” said Elianey Moya, Student Activities program coordinator. “This year, The Stomp will be a virtual concert.”

**Photos Courtesy UTRGV Marketing and Communications**

Opening this year’s event will be modern pop and synth rock artist, DPAK | Robot Nature, and headlining will be American rock band, The Plain White T’s.

The concert, hosted by Student Activities, in collaboration with Student Media, Leadership & Mentoring, Residence Life & Residence Hall Association, Campus Activities Board, Student Union, Athletics, University Recreation and Auxiliary Services, will be livestreamed on the Best Week Ever’s university page.

The artists were selected this summer after Student Activities posted a Facebook poll for students to vote on their preferred music genres.

“The No. 1 genre was rock … No. 2 was country, and the third top genre was alternative,” Moya said. “So, kind of putting alternative and rock together, we decided on bringing The Plain White T’s and the opening act, DPAK | Robot Nature.”

Mass communication senior and Vaquero Radio station manager Samantha Garza and marketing sophomore Anna Armenta will be this year’s student hosts from home.

“[Student Activities] put so much hard work into this and it’s going to show,” Garza said. “It’s going to be an amazing show for everyone to tune into. It’s something they don’t want to miss. I can’t stress enough how much of a great event it’s going to be.”

Armenta said The Stomp is a great way to excite incoming freshmen about entering college despite the circumstances.

“Although, with what’s going on, [the event] is not in person … they know we’re still here for them, no matter if they don’t know us,” she said. “[It’s] for them to get excited about it and not to get down and be like, ‘Oh, well, it’s my first year of college and it’s not what I wanted.’”

During the event, attendees can interact throughout the concert for a chance to have their names entered in a raffle to win exclusive, student-designed Stomp T-shirts, an iPad, Apple Watch and two $100 University Bookstore gift cards. One student from the Edinburg campus and another from Brownsville will win the gift cards.

Moya said the prize winners will be contacted by the department after the drawing takes place.

The department began brainstorming ways to host the event virtually after Leadership & Mentoring recommended it when the university campus transitioned to online in March.

“In May [and] June, we started getting the ball rolling to look into what virtual acts could be put on, or who would want to come to UTRGV’s virtual platform to host an event,” Moya said.

Student Activities and 22 other campus partners will collaborate to host other events this week as well. Those online events include International Poster Parade, a Mariachi Aztlán and Ballet Folklórico Concert, UTRGV Day of Giving, Virtual Murder Mystery, and many other events. Info Depots will be virtual this semester, too.

For a complete schedule of Best Week Ever events, click here.

“Student Activities and campus partners have been working really hard and diligently all summer long to bring this virtual experience and virtual welcome to the UTRGV students, faculty and staff,” Moya said. “We’re excited to have everyone join us on Thursday night for The Stomp virtual concert so we can listen, and enjoy, and welcome, and dance along with The Plain White T’s.”