Josmary Ortiz is among the 342 members of the Seymour High School Class of 2023.
Submitted photo
Josmary Ortiz came to Seymour from Puerto Rico when she was in seventh grade and didn’t know any English.
Fortunately, she was able to learn from her classmates and teachers at Seymour Middle School, and she also learned the language from watching movies and listening to other things in English.
“I don’t adapt really easily to change, and my mom knows that,” Ortiz said, smiling. “It took me a little while to adapt here, and it wasn’t really great because I wasn’t doing good in classes and anything. When I got adapted, then I started to learn the language, and I started to definitely do better here.”
Just a few years later as a sophomore at Seymour High School, Ortiz was inducted into National Honor Society, which recognizes high-schoolers who meet high academic standards and elevates a culture of scholarship, service, leadership and character.
While at SHS, she also has helped in the school library and participated in archery. Outside of school, she teaches religious education to kids at her church.
On Sunday, she will be among the 342 members of the SHS Class of 2023 who will graduate. She will receive an Indiana Core 40 Diploma.
“You need to persevere and you need to work really hard so you can get where you want to be,” Ortiz, 17, said.
The native of Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, said she started with the Head Start program when she was 3. Then elementary school was kindergarten through sixth grade.
“We have class from 8 to 3 o’clock, and usually, you have six classes, an hour each one, and you rotate different classrooms,” she said in describing school in her home country. “You took the same classes every day, but you got to rotate them.”
Ortiz and her family left Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. While they didn’t lose their home, many others weren’t as fortunate.
“That was kind of the entrance of the hurricane to the island,” she said of how it impacted her hometown. “It destroyed houses. We needed a lot of help after the hurricane.”
They had family in Seymour, so that’s how they wound up here. Ortiz said her parents moved for better opportunities.
Once she started school in Seymour, Ortiz said it took her a little while to adjust, but she was fortunate to have support from teachers to help her adapt.
“It’s something I really appreciate about here,” she said.
She considers being inducted into National Honor Society a big accomplishment since she prioritizes academics. It has given her an opportunity to participate in community service projects, including helping with children’s programming at the Jackson County Public Library and helping clean up at Freeman Field.
“I feel like being in National Honor Society is really good because you can make better connections around with people,” Ortiz said.
She joined the archery team her junior year through the influence of her younger sister, Dorismar Ortiz.
“In archery, they do friends day, and (archers) can take friends. She took me and I thought it was interesting. I tried before in gym class and I was like, ‘Well, I feel like I can do something in here,’” she said, smiling.
The team practices early in the morning before school for most of the school year and competes in local tournaments. Plus, the program has qualified for the national and world tournaments after being among the top teams at the state tournament each year.
Ortiz went to the national tournament her junior year as an alternate.
“I liked that you can go outside school and you can show other people how hard you work and how you can do amazing things even with a bow and arrow,” she said.
Ortiz said she also enjoyed helping people in the school library, and outside school, she has liked teaching kids at St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Seymour.
“I always love to work with little kids, but it’s really hard because you need to have everything planned and not every kid works at the same speed that others do, so you need to make sure they adapt to the space they are in and they learn what they need to,” she said.
When asked if she’s ready to graduate from high school, Ortiz said yes, but she’s nervous, sad, a little scared and happy.
“I feel really proud of what I’ve done all of these years here,” she said.
She is one of 15 students graduating with a bilingual certification. Hers is a certificate of multilingual proficiency for Spanish language.
“We are required to take a test to make sure we have the knowledge to read, write, speak and listen, and if you got a great score on it, you got your certification,” Ortiz said. “I think it can open more opportunities because we have a lot of people here that speak another language, and we help in everything, so in the future, I think that’s going to be helpful.”
After graduating, Ortiz plans to study elementary education and special education at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus.
“I always wanted to be a teacher. My little brother is autistic. It inspired me to help other people because they need help, too,” she said of choosing special education as a concentration. “I used to take him to school with my mom, so I got to see the environment around, and I was like, ‘I want to do this because I want to help kids.’”
Her goal is to return to Seymour someday to teach.
“I would like to come back here,” she said. “We have amazing people here, and I would like to have amazing people around me while I’m starting my job.”
As she prepares for life after high school, Ortiz has her mother, Maria Rivera; sister, Dorismar; and brother, Pedro, to celebrate the accomplishment of graduation with her and share the excitement of what’s to come.
Her father, Juan Ortiz, will be there in spirit, as he died in November 2022 after a short battle with lymphoma.
“He was a really great dad,” she said. “I know he would be really proud.”
Ortiz file
Name: Josmary Ortiz
Age: 17
Hometown: Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico
Residence: Seymour
School: Seymour High School
Activities/organizations: National Honor Society, archery
Future plans: Study elementary education and special education at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus
Family: Parents, Maria Rivera and the late Juan Ortiz; sister, Dorismar Ortiz; brother, Pedro Ortiz
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If you go
What: Seymour High School graduation
When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium at Seymour High School, 1350 W. Second St., Seymour
Who: 342 members of the Class of 2023