UT San Antonio students Diamond Gomez and Abigail “Abby” Navarro were named Spirit of the Roadrunner recipients during the UTSA Homecoming halftime show on Saturday, Oct. 11, at the Alamodome.
The Spirit of the Roadrunner program recognizes students who strive for academic achievement, campus involvement and community service while demonstrating the characteristics of the Roadrunner Creed in their daily actions.
To qualify for candidacy, students created a platform explaining how they will impact the student experience at UT San Antonio and presented it to a panel of judges. The final recipients were determined by student votes.
Gomez is a criminal justice and criminology major from Corpus Christi. Her campus involvement has included Honors College, President’s Student Advisory Council, Women in Pre-Law, Young Life, La Comunidad, Alpha Phi Sigma and Alpha Delta Pi.
Her “Strengthening Tradition Through Student Involvement” platform focuses on making student involvement more transparent and easily accessible to students.
“As a first-generation student, involvement helped me find my place, step outside my comfort zone and grow into a leader. I want to strengthen this tradition so more students can experience that same transformation,” said Gomez.
Her goal includes creating a centralized calendar of main events and student organizations’ first meetings. This calendar would be posted in various digital and physical locations to make opportunities highly visible. Additionally, as part of her platform and goals, she supports having multiple Get Involved fairs throughout the semester so that students have more opportunities to connect with organizations. She would like to encourage professors to take five minutes once per semester to promote the RowdyLink web platform in class, ensuring that students are aware of how to access these resources.
Navarro is a junior working towards a biology degree and is from El Paso. Her involvement on campus includes being the College of Sciences Senator in the Student Government Association, National Society for Leadership Success, Brush Rush through the Pre-Dental Society, being a Supplemental Instructor for Genetics and serving on the Honors College Student Advisory Board.
Her platform, “From Campus to Community: Our Shared Journey,” focuses on creating an alumni portal accessible to all students where they can communicate with alumni to gain advice, mentorship and connections.
“Mentorship provides a space for students to ask questions and be guided through the unknown. It provides a legacy for alumni to continue as graduates,” said Navarro.
To implement this program, Navarro would help the UT San Antonio Alumni Association create an alumni portal on their website. This portal would be a networking site where alumni would upload a profile stating their major, current occupation and their journey at UT San Antonio. Students could search for alumni based on their major and occupation and contact them through the portal. It would serve as a place to network and connect with alumni who could inspire students to follow in their footsteps. The UT San Antonio alumni portal will be a place where the connection between students and alumni can grow tremendously, ensuring that the Spirit of UT San Antonio thrives for generations to come.
As Spirits of the Roadrunner, Gomez and Navarro will have the opportunity to represent UT San Antonio at various events and implement their platforms over the next year.
Additionally this weekend, UT San Antonio also celebrated Family Weekend, where during Saturday’s football game, the Alvarado family was recognized as the Family Association 2025 Family of the Year. Nominated by Luke Alvarado, a senior majoring in computer science with a minor in cyber, the family includes his parents, Julie and Victor Alvarado, his two sisters, Marylyn and Rachel, and his grandfather George Kaven.
The Alvarado family lives in Houston and supports Luke in his musical interests with the UTSA Orchestra and Mariachi Los Paisanos. Luke’s family has been a support to him in countless ways, including advice on attending UT San Antonio for its computer science program and advice on school and life.
The Family of the Year is selected through an essay contest which celebrates the supportive role families play in the lives of students and the university. All current, full-time UT San Antonio students are eligible to nominate a family by submitting a completed application and essay, which is awarded annually during Family Weekend.
