For senior Informatics student Jonathan Ortiz-Candelaria, "leave everything off the mat" is more than a saying. The words he hears every day at judo practice have become a mantra. As the president of the Judo Club at the University of Washington, he has embraced it as a mindset both on and off the mat.

“Learn from your failures, learn from your losses, and keep going,” he said.

Ortiz-Candelaria’s life has been defined by perseverance. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he moved to Washington in the wake of Hurricane Maria, the 2017 storm that was the strongest to hit the island in over a century.

“You had no cell signal, you had no WiFi, you had no electricity, you had no running water,” Ortiz-Candelaria said. “And so dealing with that became a very hard time, especially with it just being my mom and me.”

When planes eventually started coming into Puerto Rico, Ortiz-Candelaria and his mother made the decision to come to Washington to join his sister. Adjusting to high school in a new state proved difficult, particularly in the absence of a familiar Latino community. 

“There weren’t that many Latinos,” he said. “That was something that was kind of impactful. I didn't find my community there, so it was very difficult. Going into college, it was something that was important to me, the importance of community.” 

Ortiz-Candelaria has made that a focus of his time at the UW. He helps create that sense of belonging for others through mentorship roles as a peer advisor and TA for the iSchool, a peer advisor for the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity, and a Career Prep Fellow for Management Leadership for Tomorrow.

His commitment to building community extends to his leadership roles as Director of Diversity Efforts for the Informatics Undergraduate Association (IUGA) and founder of ColorStack UW, a chapter of the national organization dedicated to empowering Black and Latinx students in tech.

“DEI efforts are so important to me because I've seen the impact,” he said. “I have lived it. I'm the result of the efforts of nonprofits and organizations that are trying to empower and diversify the workforce.”

His belief in diversity and inclusion influenced his decision to accept a full-time software engineering role at Nordstrom after his internship there. He saw the DEI efforts in place and diversity in the company’s workforce.

He credits the Informatics classes as a key factor in his success in his Nordstrom internship, particularly his project management and database classes.

While all of his academic and professional endeavors have expanded his community in Washington, his time practicing judo has had the most influence on him.

“Judo has taught me a lot about not just myself, but about perseverance, leadership [and] how to balance life overall,” he said.

His passion is not the only driving factor for his success. It also comes from necessity as he often has to provide for his family while also covering the cost for his tuition.

“I come from a very low-income background,” he said. “So to make ends meet, I cannot rely on my family financially, and nor did I want to. I didn't want to become more of a burden to them.”

With his efforts focused on paying tuition and supporting himself and his family, Ortiz-Candelaria was given an opportunity he never could have imagined when he received the Alan and Ann Johnson Endowed Scholarship — a chance to study abroad in South Korea.

As part of the iSchool’s early fall start program, he studied aging technologies in South Korea. He noted parallels between the country’s aging population and Puerto Rico’s, where younger generations are leaving. He hopes to one day bring similar technological advancements to his home island.

“Without the scholarship, I wouldn't have been able to go to Korea; I wouldn't have been able to do so many things that I'm passionate about,” Ortiz-Candelaria said. “So by supporting students like me, you end up supporting other students as well. There is a ripple effect that comes into play.”

He would eventually like to return to Puerto Rico. While he prioritizes his current career path, he knows that one day he would like to either start or be a part of a nonprofit that benefits his community

“My overarching goal at the end of the day, I just simply want to give back to my community,” he said. “I didn't know how important community was until I fully left [mine] in Puerto Rico.”