Windermere Prep is proud to announce that Camila Espindola Rodriguez Pazos, Class of 2021, is this year’s International Laureate Scholar. I sat down with Camila to hear about her Windermere Prep journey and her next chapter. The International Laureate Scholar has the highest GPA of the Russell Scholar recipients and will be one of the commencement speakers on graduation night. Russell Scholars are students who complete their final two years at WPS but their transcripts have credits from international schools during their 9th and/or 10th grade years. Their GPAs fall within the range of the Top 10 students who have studied either fully at WPS or at domestic schools for four years.
Camila has been a Laker for three years and is a full International Baccalaureate Diploma student. She has embraced the Laker way by participating in SGA (Student Government Association) and has excelled academically. Her family is originally from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and moved to the Florida area at the start of her tenth grade year. Camila was welcomed immediately and has thrived in the Laker environment, allowing her love of learning to grow.
Camila enjoys engineering and considers IB Physics instructor, Mr. Raymond Nazario, her mentor. Mr. Nazario inspired her to focus on learning rather than grades, which has contributed to her academic success. She was challenged, at first, in physics. She feels that he has been instrumental in her academic success at Windermere Prep, by introducing her to a different approach toward study methods.
Camila also volunteers and gives back to the community through the organization Always Purpose. Camila realized there was a need to help Brazilian students who were struggling with virtual learning, during the quarantine time of this past year. She created a plan to provide tutoring to these students and assembled a group of twelve who offered free tutoring to over thirty eight Brazilian students in the United States and Brazil. Her program continues to assist these students today.
A few of her favorite Windermere Prep memories are the San Francisco trip she took with her classmates, the amazing Lakerthon events, and the wonderful friendships she has made over the past three years. She is grateful to her parents for moving to the United States and affording her this opportunity to attend WPS. Camila will attend the University of Pennsylvania and major in mechanical engineering with a minor in computer science. She envisions working for Apple, Google, or as an Imagineer at Disney.
“Camila never gives up - even when the tasks in front of her seem out of reach. She is able to balance a rigorous course load with a variety of extracurricular activities by creating manageable schedules and by sticking to them. Academically mature beyond her years, Camila has excelled across the IB groups because she embodies the IB learner profile: risk taker, balanced, reflective, inquirer, and principled are just five of many adjectives that are appropriate to use when describing Camila. She has been a model citizen at WPS and we are lucky to have had the opportunity to cultivate and motivate this young woman. Camila will be attending the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall.” - Debra Santostefano, Director of Guidance and College Planning
Senior Advice to our current Windermere Prep students:
“Stay engaged, challenge yourself, find your passions both inside the classroom and outside of it and embrace the value of learning.”
Camila is an exceptional example of a true Laker and Windermere Prep is proud of her! We are excited to see all that she achieves in the coming years.
~ Summer Simmons, Marketing Manager at Windermere Preparatory School
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