This Rancho Cucamonga HS student is driven to pay it forward

For Jamie Ortega, 2020 presented some harsh challenges well before COVID-19 changed our world. Diagnosed with lupus when she was 8 years old, the Rancho Cucamonga High School student began experiencing symptoms she’d never had before – not to this degree, anyway.

It was January – the start of the second semester of her junior year. Between excruciating headaches, lingering shoulder pain, rashes and fatigue, Jamie spent weeks in and out of the hospital.

“I was so tired, and there was a lot of confusion. I would cry because I would just keep going to the ER,” she says. “My entire February and March was needles, surgery and a lot of sleep.”

Then it hit.

“I had a roommate in the hospital who was there even longer than I was. Both my parents were able to be with me. We could afford my treatment. It all made me realize how lucky I was for not having it worse.”

The experience also reaffirmed Jamie’s desire to help others – something she has carried into her senior year at RCHS as a pioneering member of the Cougar Climate Committee. C3, as it’s known, provides a forum for students to speak out on various issues, such as equity, access and distance learning, while providing peer support during these unprecedented times.

For Jamie, it’s a case of paying it forward for the support she has received – from her parents and family, her doctors and nurses, and her teachers and school staff.

“I want other people to feel comforted,” she says.

Jamie’s school counselor, Brigitte Hughes, says it goes beyond that.

“The reason Jamie has done so well is that she’s driven. She doesn’t use her disease as an excuse,” Hughes says.

Indeed, Jamie returned from her lengthy hospital stay to earn straight-A’s for the semester. She credits her teachers – and some lessons she learned during her treatment.

“I grew up,” she says. “My Dad says nothing in life is easy. You have to work hard.”

Hard work is definitely in Jamie’s future as she looks to a career in healthcare (again paying it forward) – possibly as a pediatric rheumatologist. She is applying to various University of California schools, the Claremont Colleges and possibly the University of Southern California.

“Pediatrics is what I want to focus on. I got lupus when I was young, and as a kid, you don’t know how to explain it. I’d never heard of it before I was diagnosed, but now I’ve experienced it and I know what it’s like,” she says.

That experience has been both physical and emotional.

“It affects your joints, you’re really tired and sometimes you’re mentally not there. In elementary through middle school, it didn’t really bother me. But when I started going to high school, I had a lot of insecurity.”

You’d never know that, speaking with Jamie today.

“I learned you can’t really judge somebody on something they can’t control.”