Scholarship winners
They play soccer or the trombone. They have fallen behind in classes or dropped out of school altogether. They are the pride and joy of doting parents or a source of support for their single moms.
They have all overcome obstacles and worked hard to get where they are today: accomplished graduates, productive citizens and proud winners of $3,000 through the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Newspapers and Sam Levitz Furniture Scholarship Program.
These five students are not only role models for brothers and sisters, but examples for us all.
Estrellamarie
Balderrama
remembers exactly what it felt like when her mom got sick.
"It was like an ambush," the 18-year-old Cholla High Magnet School senior said. "It just came really fast."
It happened in October of her sophomore year, and Balderrama knew immediately what she had to do. With an absent father and three younger siblings to look after, Balderrama quit high school in order to stay home with her mother and keep the family going.
"I knew I had to drop out because no one else could help her," Balderrama said.
Besides shopping and cooking, Balderrama had to keep her mother on her medication schedule and she also took a part-time job as a waitress to help pay the bills.
After a year of gradual recovery, Balderrama's mom told her it was high time she return to classes.
"She told me that she felt better; she had more strength," Balderrama recalled. "She thanked me for what I did and told me to go back to school or she would kick my butt."
Balderrama made up for lost time, attending summer school and after-school classes.
Balderrama, who is Pascua Yaqui, graduates this spring and will attend American Indian Bible College in Phoenix. She plans to study social work and become a counselor.
Kevin M. Copeland
has learned many lessons from his parents: to work hard in school, to give his all on the soccer field and to ignore the racism of those he meets.
The 18-year-old Sunnyside High School senior is half white, half black, and has heard negative comments from plenty of people around his South Side neighborhood. He even had to find a new prom date when one mother wouldn't allow her daughter to go with him to the big dance.
But Copeland - who recalls stories of his mother having drinks spilled on her deliberately by waitresses - is able to shrug off the ignorance and malice of others.
"You have to be able to go about your business, don't let it dwell on your mind and bring you down," he said.
Music is a helpful outlet for Copeland; writing rap songs and poetry helps him to relax and express himself. Soccer is another one.
But Copeland says the foundation for his success is most definitely good parenting.
"I've got the greatest parents in the world," he said. "They're the reason that I'm doing so well in school; they're the reason I'm not out there in gangs; they're the reason I'm involved in soccer. I give them all the credit."
Copeland plans to study toward a career in medicine at the University of Arizona in the fall.
Janal
Lingham
knows what it's like to perform under pressure.
The senior from Flowing Wells High School is first trombone in the jazz band, even though she only learned the instrument about a year and a half ago. She has had to march in perfect formation in front of thousands of people at football games. She has played the organ for church services, knowing that the slightest mistake would cause every face in the congregation to turn around and stare at her.
And she still has the challenges of medical school to look forward to.
"A lot of people tell me it's gonna be so long and it's gonna be so hard," Lingham said. "But that's what I want to do, and I'm gonna do it no matter what."
Lingham credits her can-do attitude to her parents, who have always been supportive of anything she wanted to try.
Lingham, 17, will attend the University of Arizona in the fall and hopes to become a pediatrician. Lingham doesn't care if it sounds like a cliché - she wants to help people.
As vice president of her church's youth group, Lingham is certainly no stranger to helping others. The group regularly performs a variety of community service projects, from making Christmas gifts for shut-ins to doing yard work and staffing church functions.
"I want to to spread the word of God to as many people as possible," Lingham said. "And actions speak louder than words."
Sulma Sevilla
hasn't always made education a priority.
For two years, Sevilla, 18, attended Tucson High Magnet School and then Pueblo High Magnet School. But maybe "attended" is too strong a word.
She admits that she hardly ever went to school. When she did go, she was almost always in "lock-out," an in-school detention for those who don't make it to class on time.
"I come from a family where education is not forced on you," Sevilla said. "It's a family where if you want to go, you go; if you don't, you don't."
But Regina Kelly would not let Sevilla off so easily. Kelly has worked with Sevilla for the past three years in Voices, a community service group. Kelly is the group's director.
"She (Kelly) would encourage us to do something, not just be a dropout," Sevilla said. "Everyday she would tell us, 'You guys need to go to college.' "
So Sevilla decided to enroll in Calli Ollin Academy and focus her energies on academics. She started taking extra classes after school and discovered what a difference being on time and completing homework makes.
Still, Sevilla said there were a lot of doubters who didn't think she could make up the work in time to graduate in two years.
They were right.
Sevilla did it in a year and a half, finishing a semester ahead of her original class. She graduated this past December and has been attending Pima Community College ever since.
Lisette Toro
isn't satisfied with being a "Sandwich Artist."
The Catalina High Magnet School senior, 18, likes working at Subway - she says it's better than her old job at McDonald's - but she has much higher aspirations.
Toro wants to be a lawyer, and is hooked on TV shows like "Law and Order" and "The Practice."
Toro's main motivation to move beyond the fast-food industry is her mother, a single parent who toiled for years as a factory seamstress and currently works at Jack in the Box.
"She always told me that she wants to see me sitting behind a desk, not serving people," Toro said.
Toro's mom brought the family to Tucson from the Bronx, N.Y., in August 2000 after visiting here on vacation.
"She thought it was a better way of living. She liked it and thought it was a better environment for my brothers to grow up in," Toro said.
Though the transition was difficult, Toro has made the most of her time in Tucson, getting involved with Catalina's peer-mediation group and the Hispanic student organization MEChA.
She plans to return to New York to attend John Jay Criminal College after starting out at Pima Community College and the University of Arizona.
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