SAS Student Wins Prestigious Jack Kent Cooke College Scholarship
When Raul Campos’ family heard rumors that the wet-foot, dry-foot policy that granted immigration privileges to Cuban refugees might be terminated, coming to the United States became a ‘now or never’ journey.
The family made their voyage to Miami on February 28, 2015—Campos’ 10th birthday.
After witnessing his family struggle financially while his dad worked in the restaurant and trucking industries, Campos overcame his language barriers and poured his heart into education.
Eight years later, his hard work paid off.
In March, the School for Advanced Studies student was one of 60 high school seniors nationwide selected to receive the Jack Kent Cooke College Scholarship. The award provides high-achieving scholars with $55,000 to attend a four-year educational institution.
“I enjoy school, getting good grades and making my mom and dad proud. I can feel their happiness,” Campos said. “Now that I have grown more, I understand it comes from them knowing they made the right choice in bringing me here.”
Today—less than two months after earning an associate’s degree from Miami Dade College—the 18-year-old will receive his high school diploma at Florida International University’s Ocean Bank Convocation Center.
Campos will continue his education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he hopes to merge his passion for mathematics, computer science and mechanical engineering in the field of artificial intelligence.
He is one of two SAS Jack Kent Cooke winners this year. The second, Stephanie Acosta, declined an interview request from The Reporter.
Top Student
Campos’ love for engineering traces back to his childhood in Havana, Cuba, where he helped his father, Raul Campus Alfonso, fix horse carriages and build Riquimbilis—electric bicycles made with the motors of Russian washing machines.
After arriving in Miami, Campos cultivated his love for computer science and AI in the 9th and 10th grades after he was introduced to the subjects by Ivan Rico, an engineering teacher at TERRA Environmental Research Institute.
“He participated in all of the classroom discussions,” said Rico, who also worked with Campos on a robotics competition in 10th grade. “He would always have a question or two regarding pretty much everything we did in the class.”
Campos transferred to SAS at Kendall Campus in the 11th grade. The following year, he completed a Calculus 2 course through StraighterLine, an online educational platform, in four days to complete higher-level math courses at Miami Dade College.
“I got my beauty sleep, don’t worry,” Campos chuckled.
Aside from academics, Campos served as treasurer of the SAS Student Government Association and a member of the Spanish club and the national mathematics and science honor societies.
Campos also participated in an internship that allowed him to conduct AI studies revolving around national security and a research project that showed him how to apply AI to character recognition problems using machinery.
“He’s a very diligent worker…and a source of ideas for a group,” said Mauricio Alvarez, Campos’ best friend at SAS. “He may not be an artist in the sense of the art world, but he is an artist in the sense of technological development and mathematical ideas.”
But Campos’ greatest achievement is his resilience.
A month after transferring to SAS, his father, a truck driver, died after having a stroke in a motel in Chicago.
Since then, the teenager has sought to honor the hard work and diligence his dad instilled in him. So much so that he asked for his father’s funeral to be held on a weekend so he wouldn’t miss class.
“He just really wanted me to have a better life than he ever had,” Campos said. “And I think I’m working my way through that.”
A Role Model
Campos’ drive toward a better life extends beyond academics.
In 2018, he volunteered for more than 100 hours at Zoo Miami, pushing bicycle cars, working in customer service and performing maintenance duties. He also helped clean Bird Lakes Park on weekends whenever he played basketball there.
Since 2019, the teenager has taught elementary and middle school students self-defense techniques at West Kendall’s Karate After School Center. He also teaches them engineering concepts by assigning simple projects for homework.
His community service efforts at the karate center earned him a nomination for the Silver Knight Award in athletics and the opportunity to represent the Miami-Dade County Public Schools student body during a Board meeting on May 17.
“I think everybody here—the teachers, the counselors, the principal, classmates—they all look up to Raul because he’s an outstanding young man who has done tremendous things,” said Dennis P. Lindsay, the Silver Knight coordinator at SAS.
It’s also common to find Campos helping his friends review lectures and informing them about internship or research opportunities.
“He always pushed me forward, [telling me] ‘hey, you should do this,’ or ‘you better start writing your college essay,’” said Alvarez, who was accepted to Stanford University. “Without this man, I probably wouldn’t have even applied.”
His benevolent personality extends beyond his peers. Last year, Campos offered assistance to his AP physics and calculus teacher, Kora Morales, after she suffered a back injury. He brought her ice during class sessions and carried her belongings after class.
“Wherever Raul comes in, there’s always a positive vibe,” Morales said. “He’s always smiling, always willing to help, always willing to do whatever he’s asked for.”
At MIT, Campos will double major in mechanical engineering and computer science. He aspires to work for Google or Boston Dynamics—a company specializing in robotics and AI.
“You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you don’t really know how to apply it…there’s not really much [of a] point to it,” Campos said.
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