Oscar Ortiz Duarte, Cohort 24

Oscar Ortiz Duarte didn’t always believe in God. Raised in a family that was actively anti-Catholic, his early years were defined by skepticism and spiritual searching. It wasn’t until college—after the devastating loss of his sister and a personal crisis of meaning—that he began to open his heart to something more. It was then that he encountered Confessions by St. Augustine, a book that awakened him to the reality of God already at work in his life. In Augustine’s story, Oscar saw his own: a soul drawn by truth, humbled by suffering, and pursued by grace.

At the time, he was attending a Baptist university, where, as an atheist, he often felt like an outsider. But the University of Dallas—a Catholic institution—welcomed him fully. They didn’t see a skeptic; they saw a soul in motion, a life with purpose. That welcome changed everything. Oscar was received into the Catholic Church at age 25, in the final months of college. The scholarship that had made his education possible, and the Church that had embraced him with love and truth, inspired in him a lifelong desire to give others what he had received.

That’s what led Oscar into education—not as a job, but as a calling. His early work in public charter schools allowed him to serve students who, like him, needed someone to believe in their potential. Eventually, that path brought him to Catholic education, where he could unite academic leadership with his deepest convictions. As Head of School at Nolan Catholic High School in Fort Worth, Texas, he led with a heart for mission: ensuring that every student, especially those who might not otherwise have access, encounters the transformative power of a Catholic education. He now continues these efforts towards universal accessibility as the Executive Director of Strategic Outreach and Educational Access for the Diocese of Fort Worth.

Oscar knows firsthand that faith is often planted before it is professed—and he leads with the same eyes that once saw a lost student as someone God was already calling home.

 

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