Elizabeth Gamarra’s parents took a risk and gave up
everything they had worked for in Peru for a better life in the United States.
They took turns working and going back to school, learning English along the
way. And they started their American higher ed experience at Salt Lake
Community College.
“I stepped foot on this campus when I was seven or eight,”
Elizabeth Gamarra says of the Taylorsville Redwood Campus. “I saw my parents fight
for what they wanted.” Her parents wanted better opportunities for their
children, and Gamarra has taken full advantage of every opportunity that has
come her way.
Gamarra’s early academic ambitions took root at the Salt
Lake Center for Science Education as a high school student, during which time
she completed concurrent enrollment classes at SLCC, the same campus where her
mother was working.
While at SLCC, she helped start Amigos Mentores, a peer
mentoring organization for students. She earned her associate’s degree in
social work, and at the age of 17 transferred to the University of Utah. “I was
inspired by my parents, and I saw how it fit into what I wanted to do,” Gamarra
says.
In 2017, Gamarra earned a master’s degree in social work
from the U, and by the time she turned 20 in May of that year she was finishing
a fellowship at Oxford University as part of a consortium for human rights.
While at Oxford, she received an email notifying her that
she had been selected as a Fulbright Fellow to teach a basic human rights class
at Instituto de Empresa University in Madrid for one year beginning in the fall
of 2017. “I called my parents about 1 a.m. their time – they thought something
bad had happened to me,” she recalls.
Before heading off to Spain, in the summer of 2017 Gamarra
traveled for fellowships to Switzerland and Greece, where she worked at a
Syrian refugee camp. She also gave a TEDx talk in front of more than 2,000
people in Salt Lake City about refugees and human rights.
Last month, Gamarra, now 21, returned from Spain, and she is
now preparing for a two-year leave to Tokyo as part of her prestigious Rotary
Peace Fellowship, a $70,000 award given to a handful of graduate students
“committed to becoming catalysts for peace, conflict prevention and
resolution.” After studying at International Christian University in Japan,
Gamarra will have earned a second master’s degree. Her sights are set on
someday studying international law, possibly as a Rhodes Scholar (she was a
finalist for the award), or either studying law in the U.S. or working in
France in some capacity dealing with migration issues.
Gamarra traces all of her success to her upbringing. “Ever
since I was a kid, I’ve met people who are transforming society at all
different levels, some on a global scale,” she says. “The idea of service is
ingrained in my mind. My mom has helped thousands of students, and they
remember her.”