MAY 19, 2023 — Eunice De la Cruz knows her way around pretty much every building on the Main Campus. The UTSA Facilities quality assurance housekeeping coordinator doesn’t get lost anymore.
And on May 20, De la Cruz will find her way to the Commencement stage at the Alamodome, where she will receive her B.S. in Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology from the College for Health, Community and Policy (HCAP). The Nuevo Laredo native earned her degree while working full-time for UTSA Facilities.
Every weekday from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., De la Cruz works as a housekeeping coordinator for the university, ensuring every facility is inviting and prepared for students, faculty and staff. She has worked for UTSA Facilities since 2008, first as a housekeeper and then as a coordinator, but De la Cruz realized she wanted to do more with her life. She wanted to pursue a career.
The 55-year-old knows how to work hard and juggle a full-time job with going to school. She won’t tell you it’s easy, but she will tell you it’s worth it.
“There’s no other way,” she said. “Just keep going.”
In 2001, De la Cruz earned her GED in Spanish from San Antonio College. She started taking classes at St. Phillip’s College in 2015, eventually earning an associate of science degree in 2020. But De la Cruz said she grew bored without the challenge and interaction of going to school, so she transferred to UTSA in 2021, at first taking all her classes online.
Sometimes, the burden of homework after eight hours of physical work overwhelmed De la Cruz. There were days she didn’t want to do her coursework at home in the evenings, but she found support and encouragement in the faculty and staff at UTSA, especially her professor and mentor Erica Wallace, a senior lecturer in the Department of Public Health. De la Cruz said Wallace is “one of those teachers you remember.”
“There’s lots of opportunities here for careers and to be successful,” De la Cruz said. “Set your mind and you can do it.”
That’s how she always encouraged her three children to succeed. When her children were in college, De la Cruz would tell them to study hard so they could be successful, and she took that same advice when she enrolled at UTSA after they had graduated college. She said it was her turn now.
After all this time and hard work, De la Cruz said it will be surreal to walk across the stage on Saturday and have her children watch her graduate. Her impending graduation didn’t sink in until she went to get her ring.
“When I walk the stage, I’m going to cry,” she said. “It gives me goosebumps. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would do it.”
But De la Cruz isn’t done dreaming. After graduation, she plans to complete her internship with UTSA Facilities over the summer and then possibly start working toward her master’s degree at UTSA.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
Come celebrate the doctoral students graduating this commencement season.
H-E-B Student Union Ballrooms, UTSA Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of the graduates of the College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and College of Sciences.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St, San Antonio, TX 78203Celebrate the accomplishments of the graduates of the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, College of Education and Human Development, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design and University College.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St, San Antonio, TX 78203First Friday Stargazing gives anyone free access to the night sky using university telescopes and teaching equipment. Weather permitting, experienced astronomers will provide a handful of telescopes of varying designs, give training on how each operates, and point to various astronomical objects that may appear in the sky for that given time of the year. If you have a telescope and do not know how to operate it, feel free to bring it and get instructions on its use.
4th Floor of Flawn Science Building, Main CampusThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.