On Friday night, Hayley Horowitz’s struggling chapter will come to a close.
While obtaining a college degree is a valued milestone for the majority of college graduates, Horowitz’s journey to reach the plateau is unlike most. Horowitz has not completed a grade following sixth, when she left her house at the age of 13, and was forced to endure her teenage years as a member of the homeless community.
“In a few short days, my fight will have ended,” she said. “I have literally been fighting almost all my life, and I don’t know what it’s like to not have to do that.”
Horowitz said the value she placed in education was a major priority in her life, but it seemed to be unobtainable following her unorthodox learning experience.
While staying with her boyfriend at the time, Horowitz said she realized that she had no idea what she would tell people upon being asked what she did for a living.
Horowitz was homeless and focused on survival. She said she had no depth to her beyond trying to make it to the next day.
“I had nothing I could say. I was on the street, I don’t do anything,” she said. “I just go around day to day trying to get some change to buy some chips out of the vending machine.”
Further schooling aspirations
Horowitz said she decided to change her misfortunes. She was going to get her GED and make something of her life.
However, for a person without a home, guardians or any assistance, getting a form of identification would prove to be a difficult task, let alone obtaining a substitute for a high school diploma.
At age 16, Horowitz found a way to acquire an ID, followed by a GED. Her schooling didn’t end there; Horowitz said she wanted more, and the Lottery Scholarship allowed her to attend a community college in Santa Fe.
Although still homeless, Horowtiz’s life was going to change for the better. She acted on her love for dance and took a swing and salsa class at the community college that led her into a swing and dance club where she would meet her eventual husband, Mathew.
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However, Mathew Horowitz departed to New York for a while, and Hayley Horowitz was about to endure a significant change in her life as well.
At age 19, Hayley Horowitz had her son Camilo Candelaria while “technically still homeless,” she said.
While the relationship with Candelaria’s father did not last long following his birth, Horowitz said she could not bear the thought of not giving her son her full attention while trying to go to school and work full-time.
Shift to caregiver
She was forced to drop out of UNM after moving to Albuquerque to be with Candelaria’s father. Hayley Horowitz returned to Santa Fe and resided at a Transitional Living Program, a place she found comfort in during her youth.
She said she was not satisfied with staying at the Transitional Living Program, which she described as “helping kids get on their feet.”
“At that time I wanted to have a home, I wanted to have a house, and so I set my sights on what it might take to do that,” she said.
At 23, Hayley Horowitz was able to buy a home, providing a stable roof over her son’s head — something Horowitz went a large portion of her life without. The move back to Santa Fe also reunited her with someone she had been quite fond of, someone she described as “always having a crush on”.
“When we got together about five years ago, we started talking about it because she’s absolutely brilliant,” Mathew Horowitz said. “She was just kind of doing some retail jobs here in Santa Fe, and it wasn’t totally fulfilling. She definitely had more to offer to the world and to society.”
Mathew Horowitz said he was able to help her with time-management tasks such as taking her son to the bus to get to school, help watching over him, and be the stability that would allow Hayley Horowitz to continue her dream of a college degree.
The transformation in Hayley Horowitz’s life has been so drastic that she said it’s hard to remember the person she was: a kid just trying to survive. However, she said it’s something that will always be a significant part of her life.
“Somewhere deep down inside I’m still that very insecure kind of scared homeless girl,” she said. “I battle with that, but with my son it was never a question.”
After Hayley and Mathew Horowitz were together, Hayley Horowitz no longer had to focus solely on being a caregiver for her son.
Completing the dream
“My graduating is sort of a validation for all of these challenges, all of this work, this culmination of all of these things that you want from your life,” she said. “This is it; this is that final milestone for me that says, ‘Yes, I’ve made it. I can do this.’”
Graduating with the prestigious summa cum laude with her Bachelor of Arts in strategic communication is something Mathew Horowitz said he comes to expect from his wife. He said Hayley Horowitz has never done anything without the full intention of giving the task her best effort.
Hayley Horowitz has already reaped the benefits of a degree, despite not yet having her diploma. She described her job at the Academy for the Love of Learning as perfect.
“The mission is basically to nurture and sustain a natural love of learning for all ages,” she said. “We have a lot of different programs throughout the community that materialize that in whatever shape that takes.”
Hayley Horowitz battled adversities and unlikely odds to complete her education.
“Considering some of the challenges I’ve faced, I should be either technically dead or in jail,” she said. “But I’m not. I’m here. And that’s really significant.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
