Anastasia Olloque
Leyva with Assistant Professor Lau Cesarco-Eglin (right).
UHD’s English department welcomed alum Maritsa Leyva, volunteer coordinator at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, as part of their Imagine Your Future Initiative to get students thinking about life after graduation.
In the 40,000 Windows Cafe, located on the fifth floor of One Main Building, Leyva stood in front of a crowd of students to explain the trajectory of her life and how her education from UHD has greatly contributed to it.
Leyva began her story from the beginning of her college career at the University of Texas at Austin. She admitted how she felt overwhelmed because the undergraduate classes there were too big and made her feel extremely isolated.
After her first year at UT, she moved back to Houston to take a break and to later restart her education at UHD.
She credits UHD with teaching her how to read critically and showing her how to slow down and take the space needed to learn.
“My degree from UHD made it really easy for me to transition into academia,” Leyva recalls.
After graduating in 2009, Leyva returned to Mexico to teach Business English for several companies. She also taught English literature at the local university.
Even though her opportunities were growing working for these big corporations, Leyva expressed how she felt a sense of “selling out,” especially because many of these companies were known for exploiting Mexican labor for cheap.
This feeling marked the beginning of her nonprofit work as she began volunteering for the organization, Voices Breaking Boundaries.
This led to Leyva taking a step back from teaching and returning to school, securing a fully funded graduate school program with the University of Arizona to get her master’s in creative writing. Through her program, she was offered a fellowship and the opportunity to teach English in Singapore.
In 2017, Leyva started volunteering at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. She began as a child advocate, a role in which each volunteer is appointed to an individual immigrant child.
Her duties included meeting with these kids once or twice a day. A strong commitment, but Leyva felt an obligation to do the work and give back to her community.
“I wanted to be there for the kids I was appointed to,” Leyva commented.
By 2019, Leyva had worked her way up to her current volunteer coordinator position. “All of this because I know how to write really good emails,” Leyva joked.
Throughout her story of ups and downs, Leyva stressed the importance of not taking on too heavy a workload. She is a big advocate of knowing your worth and not settling for less.
“Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should do it for free,” she remarked.
After Leyva finished her story, the floor was open for the crowd to ask questions. Students asked questions ranging from time management to ways to explain to their families the uncertainty of their careers.
“Understand that careers, social media, and the current atmosphere we live in have these certain ideas of who you should be, which can cause you to compare yourself with others,” Leyva stated. “Give yourself time, grace, and space to explore what does or doesn’t bring you joy.”
As a final message, Leyva encouraged the crowd of English students to rest easy in their concerns about finding a job after graduating.
“Having that writing foundation opens up so many doors,” Leyva stated.
Professor Chuck Jackson closed out the meeting with a thanks to both Leyva and Laura Cesarco Elgin for providing a “perfect example of a path that isn’t straight and narrow,” reminding everyone that there are more paths for English majors than just grad school and teaching.