When Natalia Campos was 8, she lost her beloved abuela. She knew that her grandmother wanted to see Natalia and her other grandchildren earn their high school diplomas, so she made her grandmother a vow.
“Abuela,” she said, “I will graduate from high school and make you proud.”
The road to a diploma was far from smooth. At the traditional high school where she was a student, chaos reigned. “It was a crazy environment. There were a lot of fights. People would bring weapons.”
Because they were so busy trying to maintain order, Natalia’s teachers never seemed to have the time to give her the personal support she craved. And there was another problem: the traditional school day didn’t allow Natalia to support her family in the way she wanted to.
“I felt like I needed to help my sister,” Natalia said. She and her husband had young children but they also had jobs they needed to keep. “Both parents worked day and night and I wanted to help out.”
Natalia heard about Clark County Acceleration Academies, an innovative public high school program that offers a peaceful learning environment, ample personalized help and a flexible schedule that would allow her to spend 4 hours a day watching her toddler niece and nephew.
It proved the perfect place for Natalia. She could do her work either on campus or, between her family responsibilities, at home. Math was a challenging subject but whenever she got stuck, she knew her math coach was just a Zoom call away.
The assistance she received extended beyond the academic. When she felt overwhelmed and lost momentum, graduation candidate advocate Katya Riley stood ready to encourage her. “She told me that I could do it, that she believed in me.”
Natalia’s family has struggled with poverty and she said that Riley “would also help me with food when we needed it for the holidays.”
Natalia’s hard work paid off recently when she joined her classmates in becoming a member of the Class of 2025. She’s planning to attend the police academy in hopes of making a positive difference in her community as a law enforcement officer.
She’s glad she persevered, earned her diploma and laid the foundation for a promising adulthood. “Before my grandmother passed, I decided to make her a promise and graduate from high school,” she said. “I know she will still be able to see me wherever she is in heaven.”
Click here for images of the recent CCAA graduation by photographer Patrick Gray.