Carena Fay doesn’t hesitate to describe herself as an extrovert.

“I’m a personable person,” Fay chuckled. “I love being around people and helping them.”

When she came to Texas Tech University in 2019, she knew her eventual degree needed to lead to a career where she could help people.

She landed on personal financial planning (PFP) after seeing a billboard in the College of Health & Human Sciences building advertising the charitable planning concentration of the PFP program. It was a brief moment, but one that impacted Fay deeply.

“I had never heard about charitable planning,” Fay said. “It was nice to see there was more than just investments and accounting. I could work directly with people.”

Fay would go on to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in PFP and complete both the charitable planning and financial health and wellness graduate certificates. She opted to stay in Lubbock a little longer and will graduate with her MBA from the Jerry S. Rawls College of Business this May.

This spring commencement will cap Fay’s six years at Texas Tech. Years that have seen her struggle, deal with loss and eventually find success.

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