When Liane Davila-Martin was the first Latina student to receive a Distinguished Academic Scholar award at Pickerington North, it was a bittersweet success.
“I was very proud of it at the moment,” she says. “But at the same time, that (made me) question, ‘Are they motivating Latino and minority students to go to college and do well?’”
Since graduating, Davila-Martin has become a doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) in Bellefontaine, Ohio, and she hopes her story will inspire other Latino and minority students in Pickerington to make the most of their education and seek out opportunities in whatever career paths they’re interested in.
According to job search website Zippia, less than 5 percent of veterinarians are Hispanic or Latino. Davila-Martin says those students face unique challenges, often starting in the classroom, but seeing others find success can help even the playing field.
Davila-Martin moved from Puerto Rico to Pickerington when she was 15. Though she completed book reports, presentations and writing assignments just like any other student in Pickerington, she says people still doubted her understanding of English because of her accent.
“The counselor wanted to put me in English as a second language, and my mom told her, ‘Just give her a chance,’ and I got the highest grade in my class,” she says. “I came from Puerto Rico with straight As in honors classes.”
Despite her clear academic success, Davila-Martin still had to fight to carve her own path. She connected with teachers who believed in her and says that she’s still in contact with some of those mentors from Pickerington North today.
“I had great opportunities at Pickerington North,” Davila-Martin says. “I really loved my two years there and I kind of wish we had moved here a little earlier.”
Davila-Martin’s involvement with the Latino community in central Ohio has helped her recognize that many others experienced the same challenges in finding their way through high school and into college.
She says that the only expectation of her in high school was to graduate, and she hopes to inspire hardworking students from similar backgrounds to reach for and achieve their academic and professional goals and embrace opportunities.
Pickerington North’s new principal, Jim Campbell, is motivated to help students like Davila-Martin find their way through attentive teachers and staff that emphasize opportunities and setting high and achievable goals for students.
“One of the things I’ve been working on in the past two years is establishing more career pathways for students,” he says.
Davila-Martin continued to pursue her own career goals after graduating, and she earned a Master of Science in public health from The Ohio State University.
Davila-Martin is now a practicing mixed animal veterinarian at North Side Animal Clinic in Bellefontaine, where she enjoys working with all kinds of animals, from cats and dogs to pigs and cows.
The road to her career success hasn’t been easy, however, and she had to work proactively to earn opportunities. Her first time drawing blood from an animal came while working unpaid for a zoo studying sea turtles on the Puerto Rican coast. She got the job only because she reached out to them through email and asked for a chance.
“I found a lot of people that doubted me because I wasn’t good at (math) or didn’t get straight As, but look at me now,” she says. “You have to forge your own path.”
Tyler Kirkendall is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
