With Student Government Association (SGA) elections underway, candidates held a debate at Union Cinema East to engage student voters about their policies and stances on April 20.
Running for SGA president, Kayla Madrid, Anthony Scarola and Alexa Hildary Gonzalez Valenciano made cases to voters during the first debate segment.
Madrid, the current SGA vice president of internal affairs, is a senior studying political science and sociology. She highlighted her experience in organizations such as Texas Rising and UTEP College Democrats. She has completed congressional internships in El Paso and Washington, D.C., served as an Archer Fellow and currently works with the El Paso County on policy and community outreach.
“I would like to host collaborative workshops with our incoming student government association, administration and host community outreach,” Madrid said. “We’ll see what the student body wants from us before we can even get to that. That way, it’s not just three people determining the direction of the year. It’s all of you [student body] that gets to decide where their student service funds and our budget goes to.”
Scarola, is a junior studying corporate communications and marketing serving as an SGA senator-at-large, chair of outreach and president of AdFed. He works at the Center for Community Engagement (CCE), focusing on food security initiatives and community engagement programming.
He expresses key points that he plans to put forth if elected, including strengthening school spirit, highlighting fine arts and providing transparency in regard to SGA.
“My first step would be to understand these goals for our senators, listening to the student body and look at the surveys that we’ve been collecting all year so we can see what is being needed from our students,” Scarola said. “Let’s see how we can target them individually and see how we can benefit every single student. I would set clear priorities while also continuing successful initiatives… such as the agents for citations initiative or the free meal pass.”
Valenciano, an international pre-med student with experience in health provider industries and the academic center as a tutor. She is also an Archer Fellow alumna and participated in an exchange program in South Korea.
She sets out her fight for minorities to receive higher education, scholarship opportunities, food security, health support and psychological support.
“Transparency is a key word. I want the minorities to feel seen and part of the student body, not just representatives of the campus,” Valenciano said. “For me, the most important thing is to keep the system how it works right now, because we can see the numbers and we can see how the student body has been working tremendously amazingly and benefit a lot of students’ lives. I understand the struggles that we have financially and I know SGA is helping now and has been helping so I want to keep that in the system.”
Running for vice president of external affairs, Valeria Solis, Alyson Andreu and Hajalett Escalante presented their cases during the second segment of debates.
Solis, a junior studying political science, has served as an SGA senator-at-large, peer leader for freshmen navigating their way during their first year of university and intern in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I believe in implementing a direct connection with the students where they’re able to see what SGA does and what can SGA offer to them,” Solis said. “If elected, I compromise myself to connect with offices like the office of internation programs, the grad school and the military success center so every student can see what SGA is out to do.”
Andreu, a Terry Scholar double majoring in psychology and public health, serves as an SG senator-at-large and had led overdose prevention initiatives on campus with over 100 students and staff including UTEP police, department of social work and the nurse health clinic. The initiative brought and implemented vending machines stocked with Naloxone, a fast-acting reverse opioid, to campus with collaboration with the city of El Paso.
“To me, success would mean to give the new senators all the tools they need and all the knowledge they need to successfully implement interventions on campus. To successfully reach and work through them to better reach out student body. I’ve gone through this and I will continue to go through this,” Andreu said.
Escalante, collegiate senator of Liberal Arts, has served two years SGA, including roles as legislative assistant and chair of the appropriations committee which allocates funds for student organizations and initiatives. She has helped with special projects like Cover With Care, a collaboration that collects bags to support students with hygiene and assisted in curating a session that hosts free LSAT tests for students.
“Having an impact on students, having an impact on our deans, and having an impact on our community. We want students in those leadership roles to talk about it [UTEP]. The best way to measure success, is to do exactly that. Go and talk about UTEP and have accountability of exactly it is you want,” Escalante said.
Candidates for vice president of internal affairs, Jesse Corralejo, Grecia Ortega and Alejandro Facusse, closed the debate.
Ortega, who began in SGA as a senator secretary now serves as collegiate senator of health sciences. She has worked as a digital coordinator for Texas Rising and has taken part in advancing sustainable initiatives. Ortega also spends time as undergraduate research assistant with the Hope initiative that connects 130 agencies with students to provide health resources.
“As vice president of internal affairs, as a committee, accountability, starting with setting people up to succeed, I will work on facing senators and committees that match their strengths, interest and experiences. I plan to maintain regular communication with committee chairs and co-chairs,” Ortega said.
Facusse, an international biomedical student and senator at large, is also the found of the Miners Taekwondo Club and a Student Health and Awareness representative.
“First is forcing our responsibilities. If we do have engaged responsibilities and we know what senators do, where conflict is, we can be a good representation of the student body. I’ll support their development stage, make sure their ideas are in line with the senate, the legislature and executive branch and UTEP faculty,” Facusse said.
Corralejo is a junior studying political science while serving as a senator-at-large and co-chair of two different committees, aligning himself with the core values of NOVA. He pledges to put student interest first and analyze relationships between the student body and SGA.
“Many senators may not agree with us in DRC. They may not agree with the ideas we have to offer. At the end of the day, we are able to commit to ensuring all communities are equally heard, and I will do the same to equally represent the student body. I know how to see both ends of the debate. I understand the context itself is not the issue, mismanaged conflict is,” Corralejo said.
Voting closed April 24, sealing the 2026 SGA election results the positions of president, vice president of internal affairs and vice president of external affairs.
Vanessas Orozco is a contributor writer for The Prospector and may be reached at [email protected]
