Groundskeeper sets her on path to bright future
Ahime Ornelas (second from right) with her sisters and mother.
“I was a little bit disoriented after graduating high school. I was a conditional resident at the time. I wanted to go to UT. But because of my status, I would have had to pay non-resident fees. Our family could not afford the tuition. And I couldn’t get financial aid because of my status.
“It seemed like all I was hearing was ‘no.’ I was starting to feel like college wasn’t a possibility. So I spent that next fall working at Chick-fil-A. I knew I was smart. And I knew my parents wanted me to go to school and do something. So finally I was like, OK.
“I woke up one day and decided I would go to Lee College. We lived close by, so I crossed the field and walked to the college.
“I didn’t know where to go. But I met a groundskeeper. His name was Jesse, and he spoke Spanish. I told him, ‘I want to come to school here. Do you know where I need to go?’ And of course because I’m Hispanic, he was like, ‘Oh, mija, yes. You can come to school. Yes, you are going to come here.’
“He got off his little tractor and walked over to me and said, ‘Do you see that building over there, Moler Hall? You need to go in there, go to the counseling center, and ask for Ramon. He’s a counselor. He’s going to help you. You tell him that I sent you. You can come to school here.’”
— Ahime Ornelas
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