Squeezing into the UT Tyler Telecommunications Team family

Hi everyone! My name is Patricia Peralta and I’m a new addition to the telecommunications team at The University of Texas at Tyler. I'm going to scribble my name into the family tree and introduce myself.

I’m a senior; I’ll be graduating in December with a bachelor’s in Political Science. I started at UT Tyler as a freshman, so I know a bit about the landscape about the place; I took a few courses at TJC when I was a senior in high school.

I’m a native Tylerite and I also currently work for the City of Tyler as well. I used to work at a movie theater and we did student discounts (I’ve seen many an UT Tyler student ID in my three and a half years at the theater). I've also worked in retail, so I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to actually affect student's decisions than to make transaction.

I don't know why they let me be lower management

I’m mostly a hermit, so I won’t be the absolute best person to ask about student organizations and events, but I’m friends with social butterflies that know much more than I do. I like current events and books. I’m addicted to TV shows and I almost usually get attached to fictional characters much more than I should.

My mom, sister and I on my birthday

I’m Mexican American and I was the first person in my immediate family to graduate from high school and will be the first in my extended family to obtain a higher degree. One fun fact about myself that I will leave you with: I speak Spanish at home with my parents and I learned English from the TV show Barney before I started kindergarten. 

Highlights of 2012!

IT took me FOREVER to finish this video. Technology was not being nice to me. But I hope you guys enjoy it :) 

Gabby's Winter Break!

Today marks my first official work day of the new year! I'm not going to lie, leaving home and coming back to school was not something I was looking forward to :( I definitely got use to lounging around, not having to think about school related things and mom's home cooking, not to mention the Filipino food that my grandpa was cooking during the holiday season! YUMM:) My grandparents from the Philippines came this past October after being out of the US for 2 years! It really made the holidays extra special <3
  So now i'm back at UT Tyler and enjoyed an extremely busy day of re-organizing my room and putting my gazillion stuff back in my apartment in PV ( I kinda have an over packing problem.... ) So my very first blog of the year is of course about my winter break!!!:) Instead of writing long and detailed paragraphs about it, i'm just gonna show you in pictures and captions :) Hope you enjoy it!( By the way, I didn't do anything special since I am taking a GINORMOUS 5 week trip to Japan this summer )

Welcoming A New School Year and New Beginnings

                New beginnings and a mile stone in my life welcomes me into the next school year. It’s official! I’m a sophomore and 20! It is still so hard for me to say that or admit to myself. Yes, I know, some of you readers might be shaking your head at me wondering why I’m freaking out about turning twenty. Well, to me it’s just a big realization that I am no longer a teenager. I don’t even have the “teen” after my age anymore! But I do look forward to this new school year with great excitement!

                My name is Gabby Cruz from Allen, Texas. I am a pre nursing major, coming in to my sophomore year here at The University of Texas at Tyler . I was born 8331 miles away in Olongapo, Philippines. Till this day, I still can’t spell Philippines without spell checkL. If you looked at me now, I bet you would never guess that this girl grew up in a farm. Indeed, a full on rolling fields, cows, pigs and chicken kind of farm.  I moved to San Jose, California in 3rd grade and to Texas the summer before 5^th grade. I’ve been living in Texas for 9 years and I still can’t get over this heat!

                Freshman year has been such a great experience, with a few ups and downs here and there. I definitely immersed myself in a lot of organizations on campus including, SGA (Student Government Association,  Expansion (we are in the process of staring a third sorority on campus! Yay!), Sigma Alpha Pi (National Society of Leadership and Success), and  GATE (Global Awareness through Education) which my group is able to travel to Japan this summer! I also enjoy singing and joined University Chorale spring semester of last year. Although I have been in choir since 6^th grade, I still have trouble getting over signing solo in front of people….  I also have played volleyball since 5^th grade. If you ask me to play volleyball with you, you’d probably want to think twice.. .. I’m pretty rusty..ok ALOT rusty.

                I am very honored to be a part of the Student Communication team at UT Tyler.  This is my first time blogging so hopefully you guys enjoyed reading my very first blog! It’s been kind of weird writing about myself.. but don’t worry I definitely cut it short to spare you! As I become more experience with blogging I hope you all would get a chance to get to know me a lot better through my post! Keep reading our  UT Tyler Student Blog because I have so much to share with you about all the things I love about life, college and of course UT Tyler !