Skip to main content

The 2023 Women of UD

Paola Ortiz Vazquez

Paola Ortiz Vazquez

 

COORDINATOR / STUDENT ADVISING AND DEPARTMENT INITIATIVES / DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

 

“Family is the most important to me. So, I have a big family, they have always been my biggest cheerleaders. Just knowing that I have people who believe in me in every sense of the word is really special, it holds myself accountable. From things like going to college -1st gen- leaving Puerto Rico to come and study in the US… That was a very big change, calling them weekly on Skype like ‘I don’t know if I could do this!’, my family was always there like ‘You got this!’

There were people at UD that were so instrumental in my growth as a higher ed professional. When I visited UD as a prospective student, I remember meeting Patty, and Carlos, then came Merida, Cynthia, Joia, so all these people have shaped who I am, from Carlos seeing me as a leader and giving me my first scholarship, to becoming a peer mentor, to then getting a position with Ms. Williams, who is another women of UD. I started my role day one for the MBA and came back to tell Carlos: ‘Carlos I don’t like this! I don’t know what I’m doing!’ And he was the one who was like ‘ why haven’t you considered higher ed? You're doing the work!’ I was like ‘I just didn’t realize that this was a thing!’ 

I love plants, so I see it as watering, growing. They gave so much to me, so I’m giving back to my students. I want them to have a good experience and believe in themselves.

The field of computer science is a field that keeps growing, it is ingrained in every aspect of life right now. I have an initial meeting with students not only to figure out their academic plan for their journey at UD, but also just getting to know them, their stories…and then exit interviews, basically. I have students that want to do research on the medical side of things, which is really really cool. That's definitely inspiring, seeing what they want to do and what they end up doing at the end. Some of them are really cool things, giving back to the community in ways you don't think about. 

Unfortunately the number of underrepresented students that I work with in the undergraduate program, it's not big!  I'm trying to figure out how to get a scholarship to support more underrepresented students in this department. I need more underrepresented students in computer science. As an adviser I take pride in the work that I do, I want to see them through graduation, at the end of the day when they make it I'm like ‘Yes! I always believed in you!’ I want our numbers to go up! That's something that I'm working on. I don’t know if the reason they're not coming is because of money, I just want to see that number increase. It's so needed.

Sometimes I tell students ‘I feel like your mom!’ It comes from this caring perspective. 

I have an open door policy, if my door is open they know they can come in. I had a student a couple of weeks ago interviewing for an RA position, she was freaking out about it and we had like 3 different meetings to prepare for that interview. So we prepared, right, and she came back, told me she got the job. And that wasn’t advising, but that was her thinking about leadership opportunities and how that plays a role in her future. 

With Puerto Rican students, I try to create connections with them knowing how far they are from home and telling them ‘make sure you're involved in MEC and SGA’. I tell them my story and I tell them the fact that because I stepped out of my comfort zone and started building community elsewhere and not only with the Latinx students, I was able to grow as a person and as a professional, I got different jobs, different scholarships, and it led me to where I am today. So I think not only Puerto Rican students but all students that I get to engage with, that’s something that I really try to reinforce: make sure that you're involved, you're networking, make sure that you're actually trying to meet the people around you. 

Right now I have 700 students, it keeps growing. I’m not a therapist, but I’m here, to help get them connected. It is very fulfilling.” 

 

 

CONTACT
Alumni Hall
300 College Park
Dayton, Ohio 45469 - 0322
937-229-5390
Email