BY EMILEE MAE STRUSS
Vania Campos, Wood River High School senior, moved to the Wood River Valley during her seventh-grade year. When she was 4 years old, Campos and her family moved from Anaheim, Calif., to Shoshone. From there, her family has moved to Twin Falls, and now lives in the Valley.
“I have attended a lot of schools already,” Campos said. “I really enjoy attending school here, though.”
Campos has maintained a steady course load throughout her high school career by taking two Advance Placement classes a year. This year, she is taking AP Government and AP Literature.
“While I do find AP Government really interesting, my favorite class right now is probably War and Modern World,” Campos said.
War and Modern World was introduced to WRHS last year. The class covers tactics and strategies used during historical wars.
“All my other classes require me to think so hard,” Campos said. “In War and Modern World, I just get to sit back and be amazed by all the interesting strategies.”
Campos is also involved in a wide spectrum of clubs, including Amnesty International, Business Professionals of America, Nosotros United, Fashion Club, National Honor Society and Journalism.
She is co-president of the Amnesty International club—a group of students that works to understand human rights more and advocate for those suffering from human rights abuses. She was elected this year, from vice president to president, of the Journalism Club.
“Journalism used to be a class but there weren’t enough students to sustain it,” Campos said. “It’s different now that we work outside of school hours, but I really like doing it.”
She is also vice president of a new club founded this year: Fashion Club.
“In Fashion Club, we want to talk about style,” Campos said. “For example, we’d like to ask people how they think their clothes speak about them as a person.”
With that information, Campos and the Fashion Club want to create a video about style and how it speaks about a person.
“Another thing we hope to do with Fashion Club is to raise money or collect clothing for a place in Boise that outfits women with professional clothing for interviews if they cannot afford them,” Campos said.
Campos is also involved in the First Baptist Church in Bellevue, where her father is the pastor.
“My parents are the most inspiring people to me,” Campos said. “They’ve always worked so hard to give [my siblings and me] a good life.”
Upon graduating this spring, Campos hopes to go to college for a degree in journalism.
“I want to be a book editor,” Campos said. “My personal project was to write a book and I really liked that.”
Campos’s book is called “Chasing Fairytales.” The book is about a young boy and girl that both had difficult childhoods. The two meet, become friends and are inspired and encouraged through that friendship.
“I didn’t want the story to end that they are boyfriend and girlfriend,” Campos said. “Because it doesn’t always have to end that way; there are always choices.”
And that’s the message Campos said she hopes to communicate through her relationships and writing: You always have a choice.