A Student Discovers Her Calling

Senior Lucerito Ortiz ’10 is Committed to Education Reform

When Lucerito Ortiz arrived at Harvard in 2006 for her freshman year, she knew she was passionate about public service and social justice, but wasn’t sure where that would lead. “I knew I had to eventually settle on something,” she says, “but there are so many important issues.”

For the next few years, Ortiz followed her passions by tapping Harvard’s rich offerings. Through classes, lectures, and extracurricular activities, Ortiz—a senior from an immigrant family in Los Angeles—has realized her calling in education. 

“The students who have her as a teacher are going to be incredibly fortunate,” predicts Ortiz’s thesis adviser, Anya Bernstein AM ’93, PhD ’07, senior lecturer on social studies. “She is a deeply committed young woman.”

What made Ortiz’s journey possible was the University’s robust financial aid program, which allows Harvard to attract the best and brightest students from around the world, regardless of their economic circumstances. Undergraduates hail from all 50 states and more than 80 countries, from small towns to cities. They represent a multitude of ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds; what they share is keen intellectual curiosity and a longing to fulfill their promise. 

Ortiz’s mother is a housecleaner originally from Guatemala, and her father is a gardener who grew up in Mexico. Neither had the opportunity to attend college, but they encouraged Ortiz and her siblings to excel in school and were generous with hugs when she earned good grades.

During high school, Ortiz maintained  straight As and a crowded schedule of activities—from varsity track to leading the community service club—and imagined she would go to college on the West Coast. But when her Harvard acceptance arrived, her mother sobbed with joy. Ortiz visited the campus and was impressed by the dedicated students she met and the opportunities to stretch. Her financial aid package sealed her decision; she later learned that it included generous support from the Annelise and William H. G. FitzGerald Scholarship Fund. 

Creating her world

From the moment Ortiz and her parents entered Harvard Yard for the First-Year Urban Program (FUP) and were greeted by cheering students from the preorientation service program, Ortiz knew she’d found a second home. She dived into her studies, relishing classes in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and Graduate School of Education, where she sits beside practicing teachers and principals. She is a social studies concentrator (focusing on race and education) with a secondary field in psychology.

“Some of my best academic experiences have been when I’ve connected with professors individually,” Ortiz notes during a conversation in Loker Commons. “I took a philosophy class with Tommie Shelby [professor of African and African American studies and of philosophy], and we went to lunch one time and had a two-hour conversation, mostly about race issues. It was incredible to feel like my opinions mattered to a person with so much expertise.”

In addition to eminent faculty, Harvard has given Ortiz access to students from everywhere, including a roommate from whom Ortiz has learned about Southeast Asian culture. “You have the freedom to build your own world,” she says. “There are thousands of Harvards here.”

Ortiz is involved in several clubs for Latino/a students, joined a bilingual theater group, has served as a FUP leader and member of the FAS Standing Committee on Public Service, and loves spontaneous dancing with friends in her Eliot House room. Through the Phillips Brooks House Association, she led a summer camp in Boston’s South End for underserved kids. She had to raise $50,000, manage a budget, and hire staff. “I was an eighteen-year-old running a nonprofit,” she recalls. “I came out of that a lot stronger and wiser.” 

Harvard’s vast calendar of speakers has enabled Ortiz to broaden her horizons and affirm her choices. She describes a riveting talk by Geoffrey Canada EdM ’75, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, an innovative effort to break the cycle of poverty. Canada’s words brought her to tears and helped crystallize her commitment to education reform.

Ortiz—who plans to pursue an advanced degree in education—is focusing her thesis on Teach For America (TFA), which places fledgling teachers in urban and rural public schools. She’s examining the impact of different teacher-certification programs on the professional development of TFA corps members. “Lucerito is one of the first people looking at this topic,” says Bernstein. “She’s making intellectual connections between her experiences in public service and the sociology of education. It’s exciting and fun to advise her because it’s clear this is her calling.”

Spreading the word

Ortiz shares her enthusiasm for Harvard through a paid job (part of the self-help portion of her financial aid) with the Undergraduate Minority Recruiting Program, one of several efforts to encourage outstanding high school students to apply and enroll. She visits schools and answers emails and phone calls to promote the College. 

Harvard’s outreach pays off in a multi-faceted student body, and this diversity enriches the experience for all students “because it moves them out of their comfort zones, both intellectually and socially,” reflects Dean of Harvard College Evelynn Hammonds, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies. “It allows them to expand their horizons and deepen their knowledge and appreciation of the world in which they live.”

“I feel so lucky,” says Ortiz, who will graduate debt-free, thanks to Harvard’s financial aid initiative. “I’m so lucky to have parents who would do anything to make me feel supported and loved, and teachers who were willing to guide me. I was so lucky to come to a school that made it possible for a family with our resources to fully experience it. I’ve been lucky to meet people here who inspire me, and to have access to all these amazing resources. Every day I feel so fortunate.”