After moving to Lubbock in the wake of Hurricane Maria, this finance student hopes her successes set an example for her daughter.

The energy that emanates during a Texas Tech University commencement is unmatched. It’s a moment that resides at the nexus of proud relief for the years of hard work to get to this point and anxious excitement at the uncertain opportunities of the future. 

For Debora Ortiz, a finance student at Jerry S. Rawls College of Business, graduating is a sign that anything is possible.

Ortiz was born and raised in Puerto Rico and moved to Lubbock in 2018 after Hurricane Maria. She’s also the first in her family to go to college, and she struggled to navigate the complicated bureaucracies of the federal government and academia. 

“I didn’t apply for FAFSA or know how to sign up for classes after my first semester, so I just didn’t,” recalled Ortiz about her semester at South Plains College before transferring to Texas Tech. “I was just confused.”

Ortiz quickly understood that to achieve her goal of graduating with a bachelor’s degree, she would need to rely on a robust support system.

Military Support

Ortiz found her first wave of support via the U.S. Army Reserve.

“I picked the reserves because I wanted to go to school so bad,” Ortiz said. 

Ortiz learned there were deeper lessons she could carry with her beyond tuition assistance.

The biggest, Ortiz noted, was developing her English proficiency. 

Before Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, Ortiz was a junior at her Spanish-speaking high school. In the course of a few months, she was in an English-speaking school in Lubbock. She was able to practice her English in her English as a second language class and at her part-time job, but she never felt fluent.

“It wasn’t until I went through basic training that I felt like I really learned English,” Ortiz recalled. “Everything was in English. I had to develop a strong attention for detail in English to get through.”

Prior to enlisting in the U.S. Army Reserve, Ortiz applied to Texas Tech, but the application was rejected. Thinking back on her first application, Ortiz believes it was a combination of a lack of extracurricular activities and a weak application essay due to her English proficiency that delayed her becoming a Red Raider. 

However, both aspects of her initial application were strengthened thanks to her time in the reserves.

Academic Support

Ortiz began her higher education journey after completing basic training. She enrolled at South Plains College at the recommendation of her U.S. Army Reserve recruiter. This was during the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020, and Ortiz found herself more on her own than she expected. 

It wasn’t clear who she needed to talk to about tasks like scheduling classes or completing financial aid forms. In fact, she started paying for college on her own with no assistance. 

“I sold my car to pay for half the tuition and my husband gave me the other half,” recalled Ortiz. “That’s how we scrambled enough together to pay for the first semester.” 

At the same time, Ortiz was also pregnant with her daughter, Camilla, so there was a lot more going on in her life than a typical first-year student.

“I remember the day I was giving birth I turned in an assignment at the hospital,” Ortiz said. “I didn’t know about Title IX, so I just didn’t tell anyone. Everything was online, so I just thought I had to do the assignments.” 

In some ways, not signing up for classes for another semester at South Plains was an accidental blessing for Ortiz. With a newborn in the family, Ortiz opted to take a gap year from school, focusing on raising Camilla and the adjustments that come with being a new parent. 

Toward the end of her gap year, Ortiz re-applied to Texas Tech. She felt confident there would be more institutional support, and she found that reassurance before she ever stepped into a classroom.

“Red Raider Orientation really helped me a lot because I got to talk to the financial aid office,” Ortiz said. “I talked to an adviser, and they explained a lot of things. I had a lot of questions.”

The office helped Ortiz complete the FAFSA for the correct year – she had accidentally begun filling the form for the previous year – and receive the financial support she needed.

Fast-forward a few years and Ortiz is ready to graduate this December with honors, a finance degree and a commercial real estate certificate from Rawls College. During her time there, she has continued to find supportive people and resources to help her succeed in reaching her full potential.

“From the moment I walked into the building, I was like ‘OK. This is it,’” Ortiz remembered. “It just looked and felt so different from any other building on campus.

“They have their own everything here. They have a career center. The advisers are here. There are a lot of student organizations here. Also, the professors I’ve had have been really great.”

Ortiz has been quick to take on a supportive role within the college, too. She serves as a learning assistant (LA) for the introductory business course, acting as a mentor to the students. Sometimes that means helping them with course materials; other times, she’s helping students manage their day-to-day schedule.

“One of my students was really struggling with things,” Ortiz recalled. "He wasn’t sure he belonged at Tech and said he didn’t have time for classes.”

Ortiz shared her own experience with this student — her background, her journey to Texas Tech and her busy schedule as a new mother — and assured him he belonged. She gave him confidence to meet these challenges, and the student re-prioritized his commitments and interests to get through the semester. Ortiz said she was pleased to see the student doing well the following semester and building on the lessons he learned.

Familial Support

No matter the challenges Ortiz has faced, her family has been a constant source of support throughout her life.

When Ortiz and her family first came to Lubbock, she recalled feeling shaken about her identity as a student. She had been an excellent student who was confident in the classroom in Puerto Rico. In Lubbock, everything was now taught in English, and she was a little more than just concerned.

“My dad just told me, ‘If you’re good over there, you can be good over here,’” Ortiz remembered. “My parents have always been supportive, and they wanted to help me out with school in any way.”

Ortiz is grateful for the support her family has provided with her daughter, Camilla. She recalled getting a lot of help in the early months during her gap year, be it from her parents or grandparents. 

However, as she prepared to start her first semester at Texas Tech, Ortiz made the difficult decision to enroll Camilla in daycare. She knew some of her Texas Tech courses would have mandatory attendance policies, and she didn’t want to place more responsibility on her family than was reasonable. Ortiz needed consistent care for Camilla and wanted to avoid those instances when things come up at the most inconvenient moments. 

Ortiz can still feel the rawness resulting from the guilt of her decision. She was no longer leaving her baby with family members; the daycare staff were strangers – trained professionals, but strangers, still. 

“Thankfully, I would sometimes go to my mom’s house and let her be with my mom while I did schoolwork. Now, she loves my mom more than me,” Ortiz joked.

With her eyes set toward the future, Ortiz wants to ensure Camilla has the level of support and dedication she received from her parents.

“I want her to have strong support systems,” Ortiz said. “That’s what helped me a lot. I had my family, my friends and other people just helping me out, backing me up. I hope she doesn’t put a limit on what she can and cannot do.”