EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Athenas Delgado will set foot at the University of Texas at Austin on Thursday, Aug. 22, beginning her pursuit of a law degree from the McCombs School of Business, something she wouldn’t have imagined just over a year ago.
Over the summer, Delgado, age 18, graduated from El Paso ISD’s College Career Technology Academy (CCTA) as the valedictorian, and before opting to pursue her college degree as a Longhorn, she had been offered scholarships from many universities, amounting to over $1.6 million dollars.
But before enrolling at CCTA in the summer of last year, Delgado had spent two years away from a classroom after dropping out of school shortly after she started her sophomore year at Coronado High School.
“Coming back from the (COVID-19) pandemic where we did everything online, it was hard to adjust back to going to school in-person every day,” Delgado said.
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Delgado developed and was diagnosed with contamination obsessive-compulsive disorder. People who have this subtype of OCD deal with having “intrusive thoughts about becoming contaminated or contaminating others,” according to NOCD, which is a network of therapist who treat people with OCD.
“I had a lot of anxiety going back to class. Instead of taking notes I was constantly worrying,” Delgado said.
Delgado said the panic and constant warnings about washing your hands thoroughly, staying indoors, and keeping your distance from others to slow the spread of the virus at the time only fueled her issues.
Delgado’s mother, Blanca Delgado, explained that during the pandemic her daughter wouldn’t step outside and even stopped eating at the dinner table with the family.
“It was very difficult. (Doctors) told us that for things to improve, we had to respect her routines. We had to adjust and say, ‘OK, we’ll respect your space during certain times, and then we’ll have the space during other times,’” Delgado’s mom said.
After dropping out of school, Delgado tried to take online classes so she wouldn’t fall behind but it didn’t work out.
With the support of her family and doctors, Delgado learned to cope and handle her OCD much better, and set her mind to return to school and earn her high-school diploma.
“I always had the dream of going to college (outside of El Paso),” Delgado said. “I (also) didn’t want to miss out on graduating with my friends. They would go to college and I still wouldn’t have a high-school diploma. I’d be stuck with just having one year done.”
Delgado’s mother said that before her daughter dropped out of school, she had always been a top-performing student, determined to achieve the best grade possible in any given assignment.
The challenge was not whether Delgado could come back and pass her classes. But rather, it was adjusting to coming back to a classroom and earning her required credits to graduate with her class.
Delgado said her school counselor told her it would be really difficult for her to obtain all the required credits to graduate high school in time to walk with her class in the summer of 2024 if she just went back to Coronado.
Her best option was to enroll at CCTA as soon as summer school in 2023 kicked off, and go through their more rigorous hybrid online and in-person classes.
“(I) still had to do everything I missed but in a shorter period of time. Things were more challenging, heavy, and rigorous,” Delgado said.
Delgado’s mother said that throughout the past year her daughter would sleep an average of four hours. She said Delgado was so determined to finish a course so that she could go back to her counselor and find out what she needed to take next.
“She would come home (from school), change and eat, and would start her online work. We would go to sleep and she would often stay up until 2-3 in the morning. And that was every day, weekends, holidays, she was always focused on her classes. It was difficult but she did it.” Delgado’s mom said.
But walking across the stage of her high-school graduation ceremony was not going to be enough for Delgado.
“My original plan was to just graduate but I couldn’t (stop there). I really needed the straight A’s,” Delgado said.
While dedicating many hours catching up on school, Delgado began applying to universities and for scholarships. Delgado said it was somewhat of a difficult process because some colleges wouldn’t accept her applications because at the time she didn’t have the required hours.
Ultimately, however, the scholarships and applications went through, and she opted for UT Austin to experience life outside of the Borderland and take advantage of their one-year free tuition for graduating as valedictorian of her class.
“(Earning) valedictorian made me feel validated for all the hard work that I put in. Some days were stressful and some days I was really tired from working the entire night but I just kept going,” Delgado said.
Delgado has already packed her bags and set up her dorm room at UT Austin, but had a message for students who may also be in a similar situation of uncertainty.
“You’re in the right place where you are. Even if you’re behind, you’re not at the wrong time. You’ll eventually figure it out. There’s not one perfect path. There are different ways you can go,” Delgado said.
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