Bonding Over Service

Hayley Garza, B.A. 2026, will graduate from the Jackson School of Geosciences with a career path in the U.S. Air Force and a role model for her journey

About six months ago, on a sunny November afternoon, geology student Hayley Garza was on her way to an all-units meeting at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

She had just started walking to the auditorium when she saw a familiar face — but not one she ever expected to see on base. It was her geology professor, Miriam Barquero-Molina. And instead of her usual T-shirt and tennis shoes, she was wearing an Air Force officer uniform.

“I saw her and I was like, ‘What are you doing here?’” Garza said, recalling her surprise. She had no idea that her professor was a member of the U.S. Air Force, just like her.

Garza, who is an airman and a cadet in the UT ROTC, stopped and saluted. Barquero-Molina saluted back. The two then walked to the meeting together.

Garza and Barquero-Molina, an associate professor of practice, had already gotten to know each other well through classes at the Jackson School of Geosciences. Garza had learned field methods and processes from her in GEO 416S and GEO 420K, and is currently a student in her GIS mapping course, GEO 327G.

But that on-base meeting recast their connection.

“After that we would see each other as Air Force people, not just people at the university,” said Barquero-Molina, who joined the Air Force as a reservist in 2015.

As Garza prepares to graduate with her bachelor of arts in geological sciences, she said that finding a mentor at the Jackson School who she could relate to as a geoscientist and a member of the Air Force has made her experience at the school particularly meaningful. It’s why she asked Barquero-Molina to serve as her officiate during her commissioning ceremony at the state capitol — an honor that marks her transition to active duty and her advancement to second lieutenant.

“I think Miriam is the best choice because I feel like she’s exactly who I want to embody,” Garza said. “She is an officer and she kept geosciences there throughout her career.”

Barquero-Molina said she is excited to take part in Garza’s next step in her Air Force career.

“I would not miss it for anything,” she said.

Garza joined the Air Force after graduating from Mission High School in Mission, Texas, following in the footsteps of her older brother, who is a first lieutenant in the Army. She said she was drawn to the Air Force in part because of the opportunity it gave her to challenge herself within a set structure. Garza is a self-described planner — she loves setting goals, making plans and executing them.

Although Garza said she was always interested in science, she didn’t learn about the geosciences until later in her college career. She started out as a civil engineering major at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and then transferred after two years to UT Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering. A semester in, she learned about the geosciences and the opportunities it presented to learn outside the classroom.

She switched her major to geological sciences and joined the Jackson School in 2024.

“I wanted to be outside and to learn more,” Garza said. “I think going to the Jackson School was the best decision I could have made.”

Now, her geosciences background is helping Garza on the next step of her Air Force career. In May, she will be heading to the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for training as a weather and environmental science officer.

Weather officers are meteorologists for Air Force pilots. They track storms and other hazards, make calls about whether it’s safe for pilots to fly missions, and keep them updated on changing weather conditions.

It’s a competitive specialty. Garza is the only airman out of the 18 commissioning cadets from UT’s ROTC program this May to be assigned this role. She said that the training she received in environmental science classes at the Jackson School helped make her a standout.

“There were no other students in my graduating class who had (a background in) environmental science,” Garza said. “That’s why they selected me. So it was that, and because I really wanted it.”

When Garza learned she got into the program this February, Barquero-Molina was the first person she told face-to-face.

“I thought that’s so cool that Hayley thought of me as the person she had to run to her office and tell,” Barquero-Molina said. “Because she knew I would understand and that would mean something to me.”

Weather and environmental officers undergo seven months of basic meteorology training through a graduate certificate program. The classes are small; Garza’s class will have 15 students. Depending on the Air Force’s needs and the slots available, the top students in each class have the opportunity to continue their education at the institute and earn a master’s degree in atmospheric science or applied physics.

That’s what Garza has her sights on next.

“It’ll be tough,” Garza said, thinking about the path ahead. “But I think it will be fun.”

Barquero-Molina in turn said that the path Garza has forged in the geosciences hasn’t gone unnoticed by other cadets. She has spotted four other ROTC students enrolled in the Jackson School — a higher number than she’s seen in years past.

“[Hayley] opened that door because you don’t get many students who are ROTC-bound who want to do geology, or geoscience or environmental science. It’s just not a degree that they know a lot about,” Barquero-Molina said. “I’m going to keep my eye out for more.”