After facing tragedy, this Latina graduate continues to motivate herself, care for others

Somehow, while having two jobs, directing choreography for her folklórico dance group, attending Latino Club meetings, maintaining good grades, and being a doting daughter, Camila Lemus still finds the energy to keep going.

“When I’m working and I come home late from work and I don’t want to do my school work or I’m just tired,” Lemus said, “I think about how my dad would come home from working all day barely making any money.”

After facing frequent moves and challenges following the death of her father when she was in elementary school, the graduating Clovis North High School senior has found a way to remain positive and have a hopeful outlook on life.

“I never saw my dad come home and be mad,” she said. “He always had the most positive attitude and even when he knew that we weren’t gonna have enough for rent that month, he never came home mad.”

With that same motivation inspired by her father’s memory, Lemus is a class of 2024 graduate from Clovis North High School and celebrated her accomplishments on Tuesday night.

Camila Lemus’s father, José Luis Lemus, met her mother, María Lemus, in Los Angeles after they migrated from Mexico as young adults. They married and had five children and Camila, now 17 years old, is the fourth.

In 2016, when Camila was nine years old, María said they attended a reunion with friends as they usually did. She had left with a couple of the attendees to the store and while she was gone, her husband suddenly collapsed.

“Friends called an ambulance and took him to the hospital,” María said in Spanish. “They told me he had fallen and cut his head open, but was fine. When I arrived at the hospital, the doctors told me otherwise.”

After losing José Luis to an unexpected heart attack, María had to take care of her children. As a single mother of five, the Lemus family had to move a couple of times in the greater Los Angeles area and north into the Valley, eventually landing in Fresno when Camila started her sophomore year of high school at Clovis North.

Lemus didn’t expect to face much culture shock when attending school in the Fresno-Clovis area, after all, more than 50% of Fresno’s population identifies as Hispanic at the city and county level, and Clovis Unified School District’s students are 40% Hispanic.

To her surprise, there was no Latino student club or folklórico group when she attended Clovis North’s Club Rush the first time, a school event where all student clubs gather to share their interests and invite students to attend their meetings.

She hoped things would change her junior year. They didn’t.

“Finally, my senior year, I heard a whisper,” Lemus said. She then rushed to talk to her counselor, asking them to let her know if other students were planning to form the club so she could participate.

“If you keep waiting for somebody else to make something happen,” Lemus said, “it’s not going to happen.”

So, she went all in. Not only did she become part of the founding student members of the Clovis North Latino Club, but was also elected as the club’s vice president by her peers. At the same time, Lemus also served as a peer choreographer and founding member of Las Caballeras del Norte, the school’s new folklórico dance group.

Student clubs at Clovis Unified must have an advisor from their school’s faculty. In Clovis North’s Latino Club’s case, a counselor, Jennifer Goulart became the group’s founding advisor and saw Lemus grow throughout her senior year. Though Goulart worked with Lemus during her last year at Clovis North, the graduating student made an impact in the counselor.

“She is one of the hardest working seniors I have ever known,” Goulart said of Lemus. “She has something special about her.”

Goulart fondly remembers the Latino Club volunteering to read books in Spanish for children at the local library, and Lemus coming up to her, asking if she could hand out small treats like candies and pencils. Goulart initially thought the library had provided them, until Lemus said she bought them with her own money and arranged the surprise the night before because she wanted the kids and the families had something nice to take with them.

“I know her life has not been handed to her on a silver platter,” Goulart said, “yet she wakes up every day and chooses to work hard to overcome and never makes excuses or a reason for why she can’t do something.”

Lemus’s mother and siblings also recognize her accomplishments. Her older sister, who lives in San Diego, commissioned a medal with a photo of their grandmother and father for Lemus to wear during her graduation ceremony, commemorating family members lost but also their ever-present support.

Reflecting on her high school experience, Lemus said she wished she had focused more on her class selection to get the State Seal of Biliteracy recognition, a gold seal on a student’s diploma or transcript when they have attained a high level of proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing one or more languages in addition to English

She is fluent in English and Spanish, but would have liked the award. However, she said she has no regrets – about working, participating in student clubs, or her coursed classes – and did get the Golden State Seal of Merit, awarded to graduating high school students who demonstrated skillful proficiency in the curriculum in at least six subjects.

Lemus was also a dual-enrollment student, meaning she took classes that gave her credits at Clovis Community College, which she will attend in the fall. She plans to complete her general requirements locally, before applying to transfer to other schools – San Diego State University is her preferred choice – to continue her studies toward becoming a doctor, specializing in obstetrics and gynecology.

Goulart shared that Lemus, as an alumna, will continue to volunteer with Las Caballeras del Norte, choreographing the group. As for Lemus’s future, Goulart said Lemus’s character, dedication and care for the people around her totally lines up for her to become a great doctor.

“She just puts her time in to serve others and that goes really far. It made it a huge impression on me,” Goulart said. “Anything that the adults in her life can do to reinforce that character in her, I mean, she’s going to do something great for all of us one day.”

Ojo: In Fresno County, 23.4% of all residents have a college degree, according to the U.S. Census.

La Abeja, a newsletter written for and by California Latinos

Sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter centered around Latino issues in California.