How two Puebloans reconnected while pursuing doctorates at prestigious schools
Katie Orona and George "Trey" Garcia didn't talk much while attending Pueblo East High School, but have since developed a strong friendship while pursuing doctorate degrees in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Orona plans to graduate from Harvard University in 2026 with a doctorate in health policy. Garcia plans to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2028 with a doctorate in economics. Both scholars graduated from East in 2014 and have roots in Pueblo dating back generations.
They reconnected in Cambridge last year.
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"It was so great when we met each other, because those first few months were quite a shock," Garcia said of life in Cambridge. "It's a side of the United States that I had no understanding of ... It's a different reality."
The two Puebloans started having weekly conversations over coffee about the struggles of being a Ph.D student and their affinity for Pueblo chile. Orona soon introduced Garcia to her boyfriend, Brian Mukasa, and Garcia introduced Orona to his wife, Helen Barton.
The four became friends and hang out often. Sometimes Orona's corgi, Ivy, and Garcia's red heeler-terrier mix, Muffins, tag along.
When asked about Cambridge by her family in Pueblo, Orona describes the fast-paced, academic culture as "pressure cookery."
"You are in a pressure cooker," Orona said. "You have people from Harvard, MIT and Tufts — institutions that we hold to a very high standard in our country — all trying to have their ideas heard and recognized. There are people who walk around here with their head down in a book."
Orona is the daughter of home health care nurse Kimberly and attorney Richard Orona. While her family is from Pueblo, Orona spent her elementary years in Oklahoma City while her parents were in nursing and law school. When her family returned to Pueblo, she attended Corwin International Magnet School before attending East, where she was a standout pitcher on a state championship softball team.
Garcia is of no relation to Pat Garcia of the Orona, Garcia & Duran legal team. He is the son of George Garcia Jr., who works at the steel mill, and Amy Thomas, who works in retail. Garcia attended Haaff Elementary and Heaton Middle School before going to East. He didn't always enjoy school and sometimes questioned "what it was all for."
After graduating high school, Garcia went to Mexico City on a two-year mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He then went to Brigham Young University, where he majored in economics and math with minors in philosophy and Latin American Studies. He spent a year at Stanford University as a predoctoral research fellow. He is a first-generation college student.
"I went to Mexico City, and for the most part, I had little supervision over me," Garcia said. "I was forced to figure out what mattered to me and get an idea of who I was when no one was around to tell me what to do. I had to grow up. When I came back, it felt like I was almost a blank slate and I almost got addicted to learning. I don't know how else to put it. I felt so excited about it."
While Garcia was heading to Mexico City, Orona was on her way to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, to play softball. She earned a masters of public health degree and got a job as a health policy analyst with the nonprofit Rhode Island KIDS COUNT. As a health policy analyst, she lobbied Rhode Island legislators on a range of issues pertaining to maternal and children's health.
As a doctoral candidate, Orona focuses her research on Medicaid reform, maternal health and improving health outcomes for minority communities. Garcia will spend this summer in Jakarta, Indonesia, studying social insurance program policy. Orona and Garcia advise young Puebloans looking to follow a similar path to not get discouraged.
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"Harvard and MIT might be in the weird New England, northeast," Garcia said. "MIT might be the school that Peter Parker changed the multiverse to get into (in the movie 'Spider Man: No Way Home') but they are accessible and they need your voice. People just don't understand because they haven't lived the life you have lived."
"Now Trey and I, we have to stop ourselves from taking too many classes," Orona said. "There's so many things to take out here at these schools. Once you find something you really love and find interesting, you just can't get enough of it."
Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pair of students at Harvard, MIT have bonded over their Pueblo roots
