UTRGV students celebrated the start of Homecoming week Oct. 26 with free food, activities, T-shirts and personalized football trading cards during Orange Crush at the Main Building Lawn on the Brownsville campus.
Raul Leal, program coordinator for Student Activities, said the event aims to build excitement for Homecoming week and encourage students to show their school spirit.
“Orange Crush is our kickoff event, and really the goal for it is to get everybody in the spirit for Homecoming week,” Leal said. “So, we had a lot of free giveaways, including the free UTRGV Homecoming shirt for our students. We also had our campus bookstore present, selling their Homecoming shirt as well for any faculty and staff that wanted to support and wear the Homecoming shirt. And the cool thing is the proceeds for that shirt purchase are actually going to the food bank.”
One attraction allowed students to receive personalized trading cards featuring themselves as UTRGV football players. Erick Ochoa, owner of ReflectMe Events, said artificial intelligence was used to create the cards.
“AI trading cards, where it’s going to make everyone into a football player, and they get to take a trading card home,” Ochoa said. “These trading cards are essentially limited edition. It’s not every day where you can get a trading card with your face on it, with a UTRGV jersey on it.”
Gael Espinoza/THE RIDER
Other activities included cowboy hat decorating, a stamping activity for pencil pouches and tote bags, inflatable axe throwing and photo opportunities with an inflatable UTRGV chair.
Jennifer Muniz, a Campus Activities board officer and integrated health science junior, said the activities gave students an opportunity to connect outside of the classroom.
“These memories, you carry them along throughout your life. This is just a little memory to remember your school experience,” Muniz said.
Santiago Blackmore, a criminal justice sophomore, said the event was fun and he had a great time.
“[The] event’s pretty fun, it’s nice weather, I’m having fun with my friends, I’m decorating my cowboy hat enjoying the festivities,” Blackmore said. “I saw that they had pictures, where if you take a picture, they customize it with AI, that was pretty fun.”
Alyssa Charles, a biology freshman, said she hopes new students come by to events like Orange Crush and meet new people.
“It’s definitely good to experience the college, experiencing the environment, the people, it really lets you get immersed, especially with showing your school spirit,” Charles said. “Everyone here’s so nice.”
Orange Crush also took place Tuesday on the Edinburg Campus at the Chapel lawn.
Other Homecoming events include Boulderween Wednesday at the University Recreation in Edinburg and Vaquero Games Wednesday at the Texas Southmost College University Recreation in Brownsville.
The Brownsville campus Homecoming parade and Burning of the Letter are scheduled for Thursday at Lot B4. The Edinburg campus events are scheduled for Friday at Lot E16.
The week will conclude with the Homecoming football game Saturday at Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium in Edinburg. The Royals will be announced during halftime.
Leal said he hopes students come out and enjoy the homecoming events which are taking place on both campuses.
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