Campus Services announces 2025 Parking Permit Design Contest winners
The results from the Parking Permit Design Contest are in! After reviewing dozens of unique submissions from UTSA’s talented students, showcasing their creativity, graphic design skills and school spirit, Campus Services is pleased to announce this year's winners.
Junior Elena Benavides, a double major in Fine Arts and Art History, is this year’s grand-prize winner. She will get to see her creative, Roadrunner-themed design prominently displayed in thousands of cars across UTSA’s campus during the coming academic year. Additionally, she will receive a 2025-26 student garage parking permit for the garage of her choice.
“When I was planning my design, I looked for parallels between our roadrunner and traveling to campus in a car. This inspired me to utilize the roadrunner footprints,” Benavides said. “College is also not a straight path, it consists of obstacles, growth, and twists and turns, inspiring the winding path which symbolizes this unexpected nature.”
Speaking about working with digital art for the design contest versus more traditional mediums, Benevides notes that while she prefers analog mediums, familiarity with graphic design is important in today’s job market as well as for promoting her own artwork and brand. She explains, “Specifically, I consider myself a painter, but in this time and age I don’t believe in restricting yourself to one medium and style.”
Discussing her creative process, Benavides describes art and art history as being both intertwined and vitally important for creating her own artwork. “Both subjects play off each other and strengthen my connection and knowledge of the arts,” she says. “I believe as an artist it is important to understand historically where styles and subjects came from in order to know where you personally are going, while my understanding of art processes and use of mediums informs my analysis of other artworks.”
Second place was awarded to Sara McKethan, a Fine Arts major. She will receive a $100 FastPass, good for 40 hours of parking in any Main Campus garage.
Alexa Chavarria, a Business major, received the third-place prize and will be awarded a $50 FastPass, good for 20 hours of parking in any Main Campus garage.
Parking permits for the 2025-26 academic year are expected to be available for purchase in the coming months on MyParking. Thank you to everyone who participated and congratulations to this year’s winners!
