When Kelly Luna and her boyfriend left New Orleans on Aug. 27, 2005, they didn’t realize they wouldn’t be coming back. The couple headed towards Austin, TX that Saturday morning, while Hurricane Katrina spun violently towards the Gulf Coast. They feared the storm enough to leave, even before Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation, but they never imagined the kind of destruction that ensued.“We only anticipated being away for a few weeks and being able to come back,” Luna, 29, said. “I don’t think anyone anticipated it being as devastating as it was.”

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Luna didn’t bring much with her – clothes, some pictures. Most of her possessions were left behind, likely lost to the flood waters that submerged the city.

“Life has been reduced to two duffel bags and a backpack,” said Luna, as she tried to lighten the grim statement with a laugh.

Material things aren’t all that Luna lost in the storm. An education major at the University of New Orleans, she found herself at the start of the semester without a school to attend.

Luna wasn’t alone. According to www.campusrelief.org, 43 campuses and as many as 100,000 students in Louisianna, Mississippi and Alabama have been affected by Hurricane Katrina. In response, hundreds of colleges and universities from all over the United States, as well as Canada and the United Kingdom, have offered to accept displaced students. Three weeks after the storm struck, Gulf Coast students were scattered throughout the country, struggling to cope with loss, while adjusting to a new environment.

Luna made her way to San Antonio to study at the University of Texas. She and her boyfriend had considered moving to San Antonio anyway (though after Luna graduated), and she heard that UTSA, unlike the University of Texas at Austin, was accepting displaced students from out of state. The school also has a bilingual and an English as a second language program, which interested Luna. More than anything else, though, she chose UTSA out of convenience.

“They just made the admissions process very easy and very painless,” said Luna, noting UTSA’s offer of in-state tuition and financial assistance and their willingness to accept students without transcripts. “When you’re thinking about everything you lost, the last thing you want to think about is financial aid and what class to go to.”

Luna first contacted the school on Sept. 1, 2005 and by Sept. 6, 2005, she was moving into an apartment on campus.

A week after starting classes, Luna had nothing but praise for UTSA administrators, faculty and students.

“Once we got here they made it as smooth a transition as they possibly could,” she said. “Everyone has been extremely gracious and accommodating.”