People always called Idaena Castro-Contreras the smart one in class.
But the 18-year-old who taught herself English as a child had a hard time believing it at first.
“I was like ‘I’m the Mexican who came over here, how can I be the smart one?’ ” she said.
It wasn’t until around fourth or fifth grade, when she was invited to join the gifted program, that Castro-Contreras realized her classmates might be on to something.
“It hit me,” Castro-Contreras said. “They wanted me in these upper-level classes. They wanted me to better myself and be ahead, so I kept going ... In middle school all my classes were honors. I got accepted so I thought I might as well keep going. In high school, I took AP and honors classes the whole four years.”
The Desert View High School senior worked the entire year, applying for scholarships and grants to pay for her college education. She managed to get a full ride to the University of Arizona for her bachelor’s degree.
And now, Castro-Contreras has received a $20,000 from the Dell Scholars Program, covering grad school, too.
The Dell Scholars Program selects high school seniors who have overcome significant obstacles to pursue their college education. Almost half of the 400 selected for the scholarships are part of the Advancement Via Individual Determination or AVID program, which helps students prepare for college.
When she was a young girl, Castro-Contreras crossed the border every morning to attend a charter school in Douglas.
She was born in Tucson, but lived in Mexico with her family.
She had a hard time in Douglas because she didn’t know English.
“I had some interesting teachers that weren’t fond of the idea of having kids who didn’t speak English in their classrooms,” Castro-Contreras recalled. “They weren’t like ‘Oh let me help you.’ Instead they were like ‘Oh you can’t do it. You’re getting an F.’ “
When she asked for help from other students, the teacher would get mad. She remembers crying a lot about it.
One day, her parents showed up at school in Douglas and told her they were moving to Tucson. They had gotten work visas to move here.
Language barriers still posed a problem at first, but Castro-Contreras was determined to learn.
“I decided I had to do it for myself and my parents because they came over here just for us (she and her four siblings),” she said.
So, Castro-Contreras read books in English during the library’s summer reading program.
“I would be like ‘Mom I have to go read,’ ” she recalled. “So, it went on like that until it got to the point I actually learned. I basically taught myself.”
On Wednesday, Castro-Contreras will graduate with a 4.3 grade point average. She’ll get about two weeks off and then will dive right into school at the University of Arizona.
“Idaena is a really good student,” said Desert View counselor Heather McAuley. “She has a 4.3 GPA. She came to us extremely shy. Now she has blossomed into the most amazing, articulate young lady who wants to be a lawyer. I believe she will.”
She gets her drive and inspiration from her parents.
“They had to actually drop out of school young to help their families,” Castro Contreras said.
“So, the fact is that they’ve done everything for us to have a better life. They say whatever you do, it has to be better than what they had.”
