The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) sits on the border of Mexico and the United States in the middle of the world's largest binational metropolitan region. For years, it struggled to compete with top-tier research institutions with far greater resources in a quest to become "Harvard on the Border." In the late 1980s, new president Diana S. Natalicio wondered what would happen if her institution stopped trying to be something it was not and leveraged its distinctive attributes: a high population of bilingual first-generation college students and strong programs in science and engineering. Armed with a new attitude and vision, UTEP has become a national leader on a number of measures of quality in undergraduate education. In this article, George D. Kuh talks with President Natalicio about how UTEP created its own brand of excellence. (Contains 1 note.)