As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Buncombe County Early College senior Naidelyn Aguilar-Martin, 18, saw from a young age the struggles her parents faced in the United States. From filling out medical forms to registering her younger brother for school, Aguilar-Martin helped them with English as much as she could. “I wanted my parents to feel they belonged here. That feeling of being an outsider in a new country and not being able to communicate. I knew there was a better life.”
Aguilar-Martin, who attends Buncombe County Early College and is dual enrolled at A-B Tech, says this experience helped guide her toward her long-term goal of becoming an immigration lawyer. By earning an associate degree in science and a criminal justice certificate from A-B Tech even before receiving her high school diploma in June, Aguilar-Martin is now well on her way to fulfilling this goal. She will be attending UNC Chapel Hill this fall to study political justice and then hopes to go on to law school, a dream she’s held since middle school.
When Aguilar-Martin’s older sister enrolled at Buncombe County Early College, it sparked her to begin thinking about college herself. “It seemed like a good way to get a head start with the college process,” she says.
Being on a college campus, she says, has many benefits, including access to campus events and groups where she met older students and could explore new interests.
When she was 17, Aguilar-Martin decided she wanted an internship at a law office to be able to explore immigration law. She tried to find a match through school, but had trouble because she was only 17 and the work was confidential. Following a lead from a teacher, she set up her own interview with a local office specializing in both criminal and immigration law and landed an internship for a full school year. There, she did everything from filling out immigration forms to helping with Spanish translation. The experience helped to galvanize her dreams, sparking a deeper interest in criminal law.
Juggling the responsibilities of school, internship, and a part-time job at Kohl's wasn’t easy, and Aguilar-Marin cites her trigonometry class as her biggest challenge along the way.
“I thought sometimes I was going to fail,” she says, “but I pushed through and got a math tutor to help me understand before the exam, so I passed the class.”
She also was mindful of setting limits on her work time, giving herself till 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. each day to hang out with friends, working on homework from after dinner till 9:00 p.m.
Aguilar-Martin is looking forward to celebrating graduation with her family, who she says, is proud of all she’s accomplished. “I want to help families like mine at the borders with immigration laws,” she said. “I want them to feel they belong here and can have a better life.”