Eduardo Diaz Lopez
“Ever since camp, my mentality has done a 360. I view life from a different perspective. I’m going through life being present and doing what I can to set myself up for success.”
Eduardo is a recent high school graduate from Maricopa Institute of Technology. He is the son of undocumented immigrants and was raised by a single mother. As a child, he carried a deep urgency to succeed that was driven by his responsibility to care for his family and to look after his younger brothers. Throughout his childhood, Eduardo remembers moving around a lot. "I never adjusted to anywhere because I was constantly moving. It’s been hard.” His focus on the future was consuming, and he remembers feeling very lonely growing up.
After his mom was deported in 2020, his life became even more transient and those feelings of being alone felt more real. During his high school years, he lived in Mexico, then moved between family members’ homes in California, and then back with a foster family in Arizona in 2021. During this time, his grades slipped and he had large gaps in his high school attendance, especially as he strived to help provide for his mom and send any extra earnings back to her in Mexico.
“I wasn’t going to go to camp this year,” Eduardo said. He had to work to save for a car and his future. But, when Mr. Catanese reached out about coming back, he couldn’t say no, because, “for a week it just feels like you are in paradise.” Eduardo used all his sick time at work, so he could come to Camp Catanese this summer, and he’s really glad he did.
At the beginning of camp, he did not have plans to attend a four-year college. His grades had slipped with his absenteeism, and he did not believe that he had the chance of getting into a university. He’d started the process to apply for Grand Canyon University earlier in the school year, but Eduardo confesses, “I didn’t have the GPA or overall mentality. I didn’t think I could afford it and I didn’t think it was for me.” He’d left the application open and unfinished.
However, at Camp Catanese this summer, Eduardo’s mindset changed. The other campers, counselors, and program staff supported him and encouraged him to pursue his aspirations of attending GCU. Eduardo had an opportunity to apply for a special exemption and write an essay to GCU that explained the challenges that he had faced being raised by a single-mother, baring the responsibility for his younger brothers, and since the deportation of his mother, while living in foster care. Counselors and other volunteers dedicated time to reviewing, refining, and editing Eduardo’s essay with him, helping him to tell his story. “Ever since camp, my mentality has done a 360. I view life from a different perspective. I’m going through life being present and doing what I can to set myself up for success.”
Eduardo applied to GCU during camp, with support of the Camp Catanese network. This June, Eduardo found out that he has been accepted to GCU! “I’m in a good state of mind and I feel like I have people that really care. I am loved. There are people out there who really care for me. People want to be there for me and want to help me.”
Camp Catanese is actively helping Eduardo identify scholarships and financial aid to support him in his enrollment, while also working with Homeless Youth Connection this summer to ensure that he has stable housing until he goes to college in August. He plans to attend Grand Canyon University this fall and major in finance and economics.
