Jennifer Raney’s dreams, temporarily derailed, may now come true.

After Hurricane Katrina’s devastation forced Raney to delay her freshman year at Tulane University, the Lawrence teen is planning once again to take on New Orleans – starting with the spring semester.

Raney was one of several students who turned to Kansas University when Gulf Coast schools closed.

Reports of a devastated city still far from normal do not deter her.

“Yeah, the city’s not going to be a big party, but that’s all right,” she said. “I can make the best of it.”

Raney plans to head to New Orleans next month. Last August she packed her bags and drove with her father to her new home in New Orleans. She found her dorm room and unpacked some belongings, with the threat of a coming hurricane.

Before she finished unpacking, Raney and her father evacuated. The storm hit not long after. And Raney watched on the television as her college plans changed.

Jennifer Raney has been going to school at Kansas University since Tulane University was shut down because of Hurricane Katrina. Raney plans to return to the university in New Orleans in the spring. On Monday the Lawrence teen did a little last-minute Christmas shopping.

Raney enrolled in three classes at KU, but she never lost focus of her dream of being a Tulane student. With Tulane’s opening uncertain, she tried to consider attending another school.

“It’ll be different, but I have to go,” she said. “I’m meant to be there.”

Instead of looking forward to the restaurants and cafes of New Orleans, Raney is expecting to see damaged trees, trash-littered streets and a city in need.

She said the experience would be different than she had originally planned. Now, however, she wants to volunteer and be a part of the rebuilding effort.

“Hopefully, I can watch it rebuild up to the point that it was before,” she said. “I have high hopes that it will be better. : It’s too much to lose. There’s too much history there. We have to save it.”