Lisa Garza didn’t follow the usual path to college journalism.

At 26, Garza is older than most seniors. She spent years working for Claire’s, an accessories store, and had been promoted to assistant manager when she decided to go after her dream: writing.

“I was moving up in the company but that was my moment of clarity,” she said. “I realized, ‘What the hell am I doing selling preteen accessories for a living when I want to be a writer?’”

She began going to school full time at a community college and applied three times to transfer to the University of North Texas before finally being accepted. Her timing could not have been better.

The year Garza enrolled, the school of journalism opened its doors, and she thinks of it as fate. She will graduate in May 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in news editorial. Her graduation was delayed for a semester, but Garza hopes the delay will translate into more opportunities like The New York Times Student Journalism Institute.

She hopes to land an internship, she said, but in the meantime she plans to build on her year of hard work at the North Texas Daily, her university’s student newspaper. There, she discovered her love for investigative reporting. Her stories have focused on higher education and university administration, and she said she enjoys prowling through public records like e-mail, letters and memos.

“I love the challenge of requesting documents,” Garza said. “Even if it makes people angry, I’m proud that I did my job.”

– Michelle A. Monroe