Mr. Involvement Gabe Cortez crowned the new Mr. USU

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r. USU has been crowned in Utah State University’s annual Homecoming week tradition. On Sept. 23, representatives from each USU college and other campus organizations competed for the crown in the Mr. USU Pageant at Newel and Jean Daines Concert Hall. 

At the end of the night, Mr. Involvement Gabe Cortez was crowned the winner. Cortez competed as Mr. Involvement due to his experience in organizations such as being a university ambassador, a Fraternity and Sorority Life ambassador and the director of civic engagement for the Government Relations Council.

“It’s a very surreal feeling,” Cortez said. “I’ve been wanting to do Mr. USU since I was a freshman.” 

Although he had wanted to compete since his first year at USU, he said his first-year self would not have believed him if he had been told he would one day win Mr. USU.

“If I can only show this to my freshman year of high school and my freshman year of college, I don’t think they’d believe it because it is a completely different person in the best way possible,” Cortez said. 

USUSA traditions director Ella Garrett had attended every practice leading up to the event. She said the most exciting part of the competition is being able to watch your peers perform.

“I think it’s really fun when you recognize someone from class doing something totally out of their comfort zone and being completely silly,” Garrett said. 

She said that the competitors this year have been “awesome”. 

“These guys are very excited. They’re ready to put on a show,” Garrett said.

Every Mr. USU competition begins with a group dance performed to popular songs from a chosen artist. This year’s group dance opened to songs by Justin Bieber. 

Cortez said that he really enjoyed doing the dance and being able to do it with the other competitors. 

“I felt like I was on top of the world,” Cortez said. “It was the perfect jump-start to the rest of Mr. USU.” 

After the group dance, the next event of the evening was the individual talent section. This year, competitors displayed a variety of talents including drumming, singing, dancing, card tricks and basketball tricks.

For Cortez’s talent, he performed a card trick along with a dance. The talent originally started out as a dance — the magic trick was not added until later. 

“I thought, ‘I can’t just do a dance. I need to do something that is going to set me apart — something that’s going to be fun,’” Cortez said.

The card trick was the classic “pick a card, any card” trick. However, the end of the trick where they ask, “Is this your card?” was never revealed until after the dance, leaving the audience in suspense.

Mr. USU 2025 Jacob Moore was one of the panel judges for this year’s contest. He said that Cortez’s performance was unexpected. 

“There were so many unexpected turns with the magic trick at the beginning and then all the dancing in the middle,” Moore said. “I did not expect that from Gabe.” 

The final event of the evening was the formal wear and questionnaire section. During the event, Cortez was escorted by his grandmother and paid an emotional tribute to her, saying that she was the person who has had the largest impact on his life. 

“If there was one part of the night that went perfect, it was being able to be walked out by my grandma,” Cortez said. “Walking with her and then, at the same time, being able to tell her how much she meant to me and how she was someone who taught me resilience, taught me strength, taught me love, taught me my humor, and to tell her that I genuinely would not be the man that I am today without her.” 

During the event, contestants randomly pick from a bowl to decide what question they will have to answer, although they are told what questions are in the bowl ahead of time. 

“When I was practicing it, I would always get emotional because my answer every single time was my grandmother,” Cortez said.

When asked what set Cortez apart from the rest of the competition, Moore said that it was his demeanor.

“Gabe had a really good demeanor about him,” Moore said. “He was really confident and his tone of voice really won the crowd over.”

Going forward, Cortez said that his advice to others thinking about competing in future Mr. USU competitions would be to just do it.  

“If the thought has ever crossed your mind, do it.” Cortez said. “Do it because at the end of the day, in some way, you won regardless of the outcome. You won by putting yourself out there and getting out of your comfort zone.”  

Cortez also said that he has felt so much love from being involved in Utah State and in Mr. USU. 

“I don’t think that there’s anywhere else that I’d want to be because Utah State is my home — it is my family,” Cortez said. “I have never found this level of love anywhere else other than here at Utah State with the Aggie family.”