The Undergraduate Learning Center at UTEP was filled with several students participating in the 2025 Miners Leadership Summit on Feb. 28, pushing students to take part in activities that strengthen their leadership.

The Miner Leadership Summit included multiple breakout sessions, a keynote speaker presentation and networking opportunities.

This year’s Miner Leadership Summit featured keynote speaker Nyle DiMarco, winner of “Dancing with the Stars” and “America’s Next Top Model,” and session facilitators including UTEP head football coach Scotty Walden, UTEP head volleyball coach Ben Wallis and more speakers.

The speakers focused on various topics, such as how to push past obstacles to achieve goals and dreams, developing leadership skills in various settings, building a foundation, and more. Students were encouraged to apply the advice and lessons highlighted during presentations in their own organizations or lives, pushing them to develop courage and optimism to become leaders in their own communities and circles.

 Ph.D. Chemistry student Kazi Saima Banu explained that she felt like the leadership summit had helped her break out of her comfort zone and meet new people.

“I like it very much and last year I registered, but I couldn’t be there the [whole] time because of class and research,” Banu said. “I came because it’s a nice place to meet new people and the breakout sessions help you break out of your comfort zone and talk to new people.”

Mechanical Engineering student David Semiday, wrote down notes from the workshops and keynote speaker series, reflecting on how the leadership summit personally encouraged him to apply these skills in his everyday life.

“This definitely made me aware about how I can take charge of my education,” Semiday said. “The use of leadership and implementing that into everyday life and also changing things up about you like your work ethic, how you tend to talk to yourself and how you tend to think about yourself.”

Several students carried notepads and writing utensils dressed professionally, as they became motivated and inspired from meeting others and taking advice from presentations.

Kinesiology student Matthew De La Rosa mentioned that he drew inspiration from absorbing the excitement and enlightenment from Walden’s speech on building a strong foundation.

“He got the crowd really fired up and he gave a really good speech on how to build a foundation,” De La Rosa said. “He gave real advice on how to set a foundation before building higher goals for yourself and this doesn’t just apply to school.”

As the event began to make its close, students began to walk past the UGLC, decorated boldly with UTEP themed colors and posters in reference to the Miner Leadership Summit, while carrying the advice and memories they made from the day.

Semiday shared that he would like to attend the event again next year and encourages the UTEP community to be more involved and make use of UTEP notification services such as MineTracker for events.

“Definitely pay more attention to what this platform [MineTracker] is,” Semiday said. “Pay attention to what your emails have to offer and make yourself more aware about what happens on campus.”

Daniela Ordaz is a contributor for The Prospector and may be reached at drordaz@miners.utep.edu.