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Dentist Tells Latino Teen It's 'Easier' For Poor Kids To Get Into Stanford

By Ariel Cheung | July 21, 2016 12:50pm | Updated on July 22, 2016 12:21pm
 Guillermo Camarillo Jr. strikes a pose at Stanford University, where he'll start college in the fall.
Guillermo Camarillo Jr. strikes a pose at Stanford University, where he'll start college in the fall.
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Provided/Facebook

EAST GARFIELD PARK — Maybe stick to "swish and spit" next time, doc.

A recent high school graduate from Chicago's West Side said his dentist told him it was "easy" for students in impoverished neighborhoods to get into Ivy League schools.

Guillermo Camarillo Jr. shared his account of the Monday exchange in an open letter to the dentist, who is unnamed in the Facebook post. After telling the dentist he'd be attending Stanford University in the fall, the dentist didn't hide his shock.

The dentist immediately asked about Camarillo's ACT score and compared it to his daughter's, Camarillo said. To him, it seemed inconceivable that Camarillo was accepted to Stanford and his daughter wasn't, the teen said.

"But you didn't stop there, you kept going," Camarillo wrote. "You said, 'You know when kids go to schools around here (aka public schools in minority neighborhoods), it's easier for them to get into schools like Stanford.'"

Camarillo said he was stunned and silent as the dentist said his daughter attends the University of Michigan and scored a 35 on the ACT — a few points higher than Camarillo.

The dentist told Camarillo he was lucky to get into Stanford, but "when you have kids from neighborhoods like these — like, you know, Englewood — it's easier for them to get into Harvard or Stanford" with Camarillo's score.

Camarillo plans to study biomedical engineering at Stanford after graduating from George Westinghouse College Prep, a selective-enrollment high school in East Garfield Park. He said he was also accepted into Princeton, Vanderbilt, Northwestern University and Washington University, but he didn't share that with the dentist.

"Yes, I may have grown up in a neighborhood that doesn't have many young kids going to schools like Stanford," Camarillo wrote. "But it doesn't mean that people where I come from don't have the potential to succeed at Stanford. We deserve to go to places like Stanford."

Guillermo Camarillo shows off his graduation cap, decorated with Stanford symbols and the declaration that he is the "producto de immigrantes." Camarillo graduated from Westinghouse College Prep and will attend Stanford in the fall. [Provided/Facebook]

The teen also expressed his frustration that the dentist couldn't see the extent of his daughter's privilege. As a college-educated dentist, it was likely he could send his child to a school "where like 20 kids get perfect ACT scores," Camarillo said.

Meanwhile, Camarillo grew up teaching himself English "in a household where, at times, we couldn't afford to pay our rent or didn't have enough food for the whole week."

He took himself to the dentist because both parents had to work.

He excelled in school from the start, although he transferred schools multiple times as his family moved. He got a coveted seat in a top selective-enrollment school and applied for college on his own.

"I grew up in a household where I will not only be the first one attending college, but I will be the first one to leave home," Camarillo said.

The Latino teen describes himself as "first-gen, low-income, son of undocumented parents, and Stanford Bound" on Facebook. And after years of hard work, it's clear he doesn't think his acceptance to Stanford was luck at all.

"If pure luck gets you into some of the best schools in the country, then there is something wrong with our admissions process," he said. "Maybe, just maybe the admissions panel saw beyond a score when seeing my profile."

Camarillo's open letter has been shared on Facebook almost 2,000 times since it was posted Monday afternoon. In the days since, he thanked people for supporting him, and said he felt it was necessary to share the experience "to show others that they're not alone."

"I think it's imperative for me to speak out, to talk about my struggles," he said. "For a very long time I was silent. Silent when belittled, silent when labeled, and silent when disrespected.

"But not anymore."

Read Guillermo Camarillo's open letter:

 

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