Paola Lerma Martin del Campo wasn’t interested in academics her freshman year at Big Picture High School until a haircut showed her she could succeed in school.
This semester she headed off to college in Denver.
Del Campo grew up hearing from her fellow students, some teachers and others that she wasn’t good enough for college. So, she stopped attending many of her classes as a freshman.
Then, Assistant Principal Dreher Robertson threw down a challenge. If del Campo attended school for four consecutive weeks, she could cut his hair. She was interning at a hair salon at the time and took Robertson up on his offer.
She started to get the hang of her classes by week two of the challenge, and by week four, she decided she liked going to school because she could get help with her classwork and she wouldn’t have homework.
At the end of the month, del Campo cut Robertson’s hair and discovered she didn’t want to be a hairdresser.
“I was so shaky with the clippers,” she said.
As she spent more time in class, she developed academic ambitions and now plans to become a physician, she said.
“I wasn’t as stuck anymore because I had all the help that I needed. ... And I showed up,” she said.
This semester, she headed off to Metropolitan State University of Denver to study biology.
Getting there wasn’t easy. As a senior in high school preparing for college, del Campo discovered she wasn’t eligible for nearly as many scholarships as some of her peers because she was a Mexican immigrant. She had moved to Durango from Chihuahua, Mexico, when she was 6 years old after her father’s employer transferred him to town.
“This is really hard for me,” she recalled thinking. “I can’t imagine what other students are going through.”
So, she decided to raise scholarship money for another student who immigrated to the U.S. She wanted another immigrant to know what it felt like to easily qualify for a scholarship, she said.
Del Campo raised $500 in scholarship money she donated to Fort Lewis College through the multicultural fair she held as her senior thesis about immigration at Big Picture.
She got interested in studying immigration and its history as a sophomore and planned the fair to share her own culture and others from around the world through food, games and informational booths.
“I wanted to educate people (that) it’s the cultural diversity that makes America,” she said.
Overall, Durango is calm and welcoming, but she did experience some racism growing up in town.
For example, one time while in elementary school, a little girl refused to hold del Campo’s hand because she had been taught to believe Del Campo was from a “mean” group of people from “dirty lands.”
Del Campo said she knows she will likely endure more racism, but she tries not to let it get to her, because for all those who are racist, many more are kind.
“We can celebrate each other and each other’s culture,” she said.
Del Campo’s hard work in school was rewarded with a $10,000 scholarship renewable for four years from the Durango Education Foundation, said Wendy Allsbrook Javier, del Campo’s mentor. It’s funding that will allow her to attend school debt-free. But del Campo started her fundraising for another immigrant student before her own college dreams were secure and that’s what Javier finds so beautiful about her.
“I am really excited it worked out for her so well; she has worked really hard,” she said. “ ... She is also incredibly thankful to be here in the United States and give back and be a part of this community, this country.”
Del Campo plans to give back internationally as well, as a doctor, because of her experience with Doctors without Borders as a child in Mexico.
Del Campo was malnourished, and her lungs were underdeveloped when a physician with Doctors without Borders visited her home and treated her. She credits the nonprofit for allowing to have a regular childhood.
“So, I want to be a ‘doctor without borders’ as well and help anyone who I can,” she said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
