I have studied humanities, philosophy, theology and education, in both undergraduate and graduate levels. Here is a list of my academic experiences:

2003-2007 University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus

Here I studied in the Faculty of Humanities. My major was Interdisciplinary Studies, with a specialization in the Middle Ages. I earned a BA degree thanks to an exception that allowed me to graduate under the new bachelor’s degree system, which was first applied at the UPR to students in the academic year 2008-2009. At that moment, I had no idea that my ADHD was behind my academic difficulties; I was simply considered a gifted student with different intellectual perspectives.

2004-2005 University of Granada, Spain

Here I studied for a year as an international exchange student at the University of Granada, in Andalucía, Spain. I did most of my medieval courses there. I passed the needed classes to get my medieval concentration back in Puerto Rico. ADHD was still not identified here.

2008-2011 University of Navarra, Spain

Here I began a PhD in Philosophy, specializing in Philosophy of Education. My dissertation was about creating a philosophy of education from the philosophy of Charles S. Peirce. I finished all the required PhD courses but I left the University in my third year of graduate studies without even starting formally my dissertation, not due lack of a brilliant thesis director in which I found for the first time of my life someone who understood how I believed writing empowers a better reasoning and becoming a better thinker, it is not merely an academic skill… No, I left because the way I felt I was called to study and practice philosophy, applying what I was writing with a concrete social impact, was not possible in the circumstances and context I was studying there.

There, I also began studying in the Ecclesiastical Faculty of Theology. My intention was to complete an ecclesiastical degree in Theology, but I needed to complete the ecclesiastical Philosophy degree first. I could not pass some of the philosophy tests, and I could not pass even the “easiest” Latin tests, so I dropped the Ecclesiastical Faculty of Theology after two years of study. I left the University because there were personal difficulties related with me stop being member of Opus Dei (the University of Navarra belongs to Opus Dei, and I was clearly critical about several aspects of the organization, something that is not easy to deal with while you remain in one of their institutions), there were also clear disagreements with a solely right-wing perspective, including ad-hominem arguments that were simply emotionally draining, and here the difficulties with a fully blown ADHD, including in the emotional sense, began to let me unable to execute in my best expression: at this point of my life my creative giftedness could not cope anymore with my ADHD and the diagnosis behind my twice-exceptionality began to become fully visible. Despite having medical evidence of the diagnosis brought to Spain, I was given no reasonable accommodation at the University of Navarra, and that meant I couldn´t pass the classes no matter how hard I studied, because I was being evaluated without the reasonable accommodations that usually federal law forces universities to comply with in USA, but despite being IN Spain funded with federal graduate US loans, I still was in Spain and their laws doesn´t require them to accomodate diverse students in higher education. In Spain, there is no notion of “reasonable accommodation” for students with diverse functional needs at the university level; either you comply with the academic expectations, or you leave… and I left.

Besides all that, at this moment there was another undeniable factor that determined my choice to leave or stay at the University of Navarra… it was while I was still a graduate student of the University of Navarra that I began contemplating the painting of a Iesu Amor, of a Jesus Charity… but I fully understood: I won´t be able to paint something like that in these circumstances. If I wanted to pursue the creative project God was calling me to undertake, choices had to be made… so I left, not having a clue what would be waiting for me when I came back to Puerto Rico.

2011-2013 Universidad Central de Bayamón, Puerto Rico

Here, I began an MA in Theology and took some undergraduate courses. I chose this university because it offered the equivalent of a theology degree from the Angelicum. I failed again, miserably, to make academic progress, with another ideological crash: what happened at the University of Navarra from the right wing, here happened from the left wing… and I dropped out after two years of study. It was in this faculty of theology that I could share the painting of a Jesus Charity for the first time… but I was unable to incarnate it due to the circumstances. That was another huge reason to leave. I never attempted to study theology or philosophy as a career again. I ended deeply wounded and exhausted after both experiences colliding one after another, besides also dealing with the understanding of adult ADHD in a moment in which adult female ADHD was still not as fully recognized as the male version.

2016-2018 University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus

Here, I studied all the courses required to become certified as an elementary English teacher. This was the first time in my academic life that I had reasonable accommodations for dysgraphia and ADHD. My academic progress stabilized, and I managed to pass all the courses, except one, with an A. I do not have a second degree in Education simply because the University of Puerto Rico does not grant second degrees, even if you pass absolutely all the courses that such a second degree would require, provided the same criteria for granting the first degree were applied.

Please note that I have included a list of all the places I have studied, whether I earned a degree there or not. I learned something in every place, whether I achieved the expected degree or not; that is why I included all my academic experiences here.

That said, getting reasonable accommodations made a huge difference in my academic life. I began to study as a normal student, expected to learn in my own way without being penalized for being twice-exceptional. I am very grateful to UPR, Río Piedras campus, for the opportunity to learn with reasonable accommodations as a student of their Faculty of Education. The style of the Dean I had, both as a Humanities Faculty student and as an Education Faculty student, left a huge impact on me, as did my mentor professor, inspiring me with her passion for teaching.

Despite choosing Education as a professional path, I will keep studying philosophy and theology my whole life, but not through getting a degree, but by myself, for personal growth. My twice-exceptionality (that means: I am creatively gifted besides having ADHD) makes really hard for me as a creative gifted to study philosophy or theology academically: they are the two most traditional and masculine-analytical academic fields, with no room for creativity besides not having more options to study them academically in Puerto Rico, so I have remained studying them as a personal intererest among my professional endeavours as teacher, completing the text “Yes, we can grow best!” as a philosophy of education, and completing “Summa Personae” as a theological exposition of integraction, the personal formation model created to support a theology of light.