Profile

About: hi :)
I'm Delisa. I grew up in Edinburg, TX with my parents, two younger sisters, and our dog Charles Xavier. I graduated from UT Austin in May 2020 (from my living room couch) with a B.S in Biology, concentrating in Genetics & Genomics. I am currently working in an academic research lab here on campus in my gap year before pursuing a PhD.
I am a yogi, an aspiring plant mom, and a nerd for authentic Mexican cookbooks. I love a good matcha latte, any day that is 78˚ and blue skies, plugging into a quality podcast, or being engulfed by a good book.

Why I Ride

my 2020 team-
thank you for constantly inspiring me with your stories, vulnerability, and strength. I am infinitely grateful for having been able to cry alongside you for every why i ride, to circle up before every saturday sunrise, and everything in between. To Alaska and back, always.

Tia Tommie-
Tia Tommie was an avid reader, a talented seamstress, a skilled gardener, but, most importantly, she was a constant in my life. Every Wednesday after school, at 3 pm sharp, there would be a grey Honda Accord waiting at the very front of the endless line of cars for me to get out of school, even though I didn’t get out until 4. Twice a month, my sisters and I would go and “sleepover,” at her house. Although, as most sleepovers go, there was no sleeping. We would play endless rounds of Loteria (she would always win) and watch Home on the Range on loop. My Tia Tommie was the constant in my life. I never needed to call her to pick me up because I knew she was already there. I could always find her watering her rose bushes in the backyard or engrossed in a Danielle Steel novel. I can’t remember a time when she wasn’t there for my yearly awards ceremony or a band concert. She was there for my Kindergarten graduation and I know, she would have been there for my High School one too. As I grew older, the sleepovers stopped and eventually, I began to drive myself to and from school. However, her love never ceased. The doctors thought it was anemia, but she never got better. Back and forth from hospitals and hospices, I witnessed the person who served as my rock my entire life beginning to chip away. I watched her tirelessly fight through treatment after treatment as the cancer showed no mercy on her. She may not be able to serve as a physical constant anymore, but her love and warmth will continue to serve as a mental one.

Mr. T-
Music wasn’t just a hobby for Mr. T, it was a way of life that he instilled in all of his clarinets from the moment we met him on the first day of summer band camp my sophomore year. He built us into a family, and we grew together throughout the years from marching rehearsals, to clarinet choir practices. He was there through it all; the typical audition nerves, the glorious high school drama, the tears of success and failure. I never really got a chance to say goodbye; cancer snatched his life away within what seemed like the blink of an eye. So, Mr. T, thank you for an incredible three years of beautiful memories, endless chromatic warm-ups, and never giving up on me. This one’s for you.

To Alaska (metaphorically) and back,

Delisa