Watch as UTEP celebrates the largest graduating class in its history
More than 3,140 spring and summer graduation candidates take part in UTEP’s commencement ceremonies over the weekend.
Gaby Velasquez, El Paso Times
El Paso Community College students Samantha Zapata and Amna Aboushehata are making their mark in fashion as they prepare to graduate.
The two students, who are graduating from EPCC’s Fashion Technology Program, earned Honorable Mention Awards for their designs at the prestigious Fashion Group International (FGI) of Dallas Scholarship Competition in April.
The El Paso Community College 2025 Spring Commencement will take place Friday, May 16, at the Don Haskins Center at UTEP. The commencements are at 9 a.m., 1 and 5 p.m. UTEP is also holding its graduation ceremonies this weekend.
The community college will celebrate 2,356 students with associate degrees and certificates of completion, which include 788 Dual Credit, Early College High School, and Pathways in Technology Early College High School students.
Aboushehata, whose father owned an alterations business in North Carolina when she was young, entered a denim jacket with gathered sleeves and a pleated skirt with beautiful red stitching and a unique feature on the skirt that allows part of the wrap to be snapped in different places on the skirt, varying the look.
Zapata entered the black tie and bridal category and entered a two-piece evening look made with a light pink, detailed brocade. The gown, called weeping flora, was inspired by her interest in the Rococo style, and created with a removable rippled skirt made to resemble an upside-down flower with hanging crystals to resemble dewdrops. The skirt can be worn atop the gown skirt or as a cape.
Zapata, who enrolled in the program three years ago, said it was exciting to take her dress from her sketches on an iPad to the sewing machine and then wrap it carefully and ship it to the competition, where it was displayed on a mannequin among other student designs.
“Honestly, I was just happy for them to notice it. It was really surreal because I didn’t know how to sew three years ago. So, bringing a garment from your ideas to life — it was really nice, and I genuinely wanted to tear up when I saw it because of all the hard work that I put into it,” she said.
Program coordinator Vanessa Ramirez, who also graduated from the program and has been coordinator for about seven years, said the accolades highlight the students’ individual talents but also the strength of the EPCC Fashion program.
The program, going on 50 years, is currently only available at the Transmountain campus but Ramirez has plans to see the program expand to one other campus in the future. For now, however, the Northeast mountain landscape is an inspiring background for the fashion students.
“We are out here at Transmountain. It’s isolated with beautiful mountain views and a quiet campus. It’s a perfect setting for somebody to study fashion away from the noise of the city. We get a lot of feedback of why we aren’t Downtown or in a more urban area.
But being out here and having one-on-one with the instructors and small class sizes really is what makes this program so special,” Ramirez said.
Where passion for fashion started
Zapata said she initially got interested in fashion by hand-sewing clothes for her dolls and sketching outfits inspired by the reality show, Project Runway.
However, she originally majored in kinesiology and got her bachelor’s degree at UTEP in 2022 before realizing EPCC has a program for her true dream. She had seen a garment display at the Transmountain campus.
“It was really overwhelming because you need to learn the stitching and sewing machine and picking up all the tips and tricks. But over time, it became muscle memory,” Zapata said.
Zapata said she is hoping to pursue a career in product development and launch her own brand one day. The brand would be very feminine and primarily pastels.
The 26-year-old wants to encourage other students who want to change paths midway through school.
“Just do it because you don’t want to be stuck in something you don’t like. Genuinely do something that you like,” she said.
Aboushehat, 20, said she learned the basics of sewing at the age of 10 to 12 using industrial machines from her father, who had the sewing and alteration business.
“I didn’t know fashion school was a thing until I came to El Paso Community College. At first, I was majoring in art,” she said.
She said she learned about design, making patterns, how to choose fabrics and finding her aesthetic.
“My aesthetic is mostly feminine, like flowery, with a conservative side to it,” she said.
After graduation, Aboushehat is hoping to present her designs to local stores like Gal Fashion as well as showing at Coterie Market in New York, a luxury advanced contemporary and high-end fashion market for designers to meet with store owners to make orders.
After spending a whole semester on a garden themed collection, Aboushehat is ready to walk on the graduation stage in one of her designs. But she also plans to go to back to school soon.
“I want to study fashion and design merchandizing at NMSU,” she said.
María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150; mcortes@elpasotimes.com; @eptmaria.bsky.social on Bluesky, and @eptmariacg on TikTok.
