Rice or Dartmouth? That is a decision many high school seniors would love to have. One Joshua High School student made that choice May 1 when she told Rice she would attend in the fall.

“I’ve known about Rice since my freshman year — it’s the school of Texas,” Luz Pimentel, 18, of Joshua said. “It’s closer to home and it was like the perfect medium.”

Luz’s parents, José and Luz, came to the United States in the 1970s and made a better life for themselves and the children they planned to have later. Her parents encouraged her to work hard for the American dream and she is on her way to achieving it after accomplishing so much already. She has thrown herself into the recent debate over immigration, having formed a student group at JHS to combat off-campus protests some students left class for.

“Whenever she started getting the knowledge of life, I encouraged her to do the best she could,” her father, José Pimentel, said. “After that point she always tried to be on top. Whenever I see her working so hard for things, I feel guilty for making her do those things. I try to tell her to take it easy and then she says, ‘Daddy you made me this way.’”

She plans to double major in mechanical engineering and liberal arts.

“It goes back to when I was little,” she said. “I had this strange little fetish for science books, and history too, and I had this fascination with ancient Egyptian stuff.”

“I like reading about it and learning how things work and how the world turns,” she said.

She will graduate as salutatorian of her class at 7:30 p.m. today at the Wilkerson-Grienes Activity Center in Fort Worth.



Great expectations

Luz Pimentel has always been a hardworking student. Homework was never something she blew off.

“When you’re little, you just do it or don’t do it, either way,” she said. And Luz did it.

Her parents have expected hard work from her.

“I guess I’m like every other parent, always trying to support her the best I can, that’s the way I’ve always been,” her father said. “I let them know the biggest mistake I made was quitting school when I was young. Now I have to work hard, and I know having a good education gives you better opportunities.”

Her parents’ expectations have pushed her to do well in life. When she received her scholarship, her father was proud but continued to push her to continue to work hard.

“I told her, first thing, congratulations for getting the scholarship and the second thing was that you have to keep up,” José Pimentel said. “I don’t have a lot of experience with scholarships, but whoever is in control of that money — they’re not going to give the money to somebody who does not work hard. Somebody is going to be watching her grades to make sure she uses the money the way they expect her too.”

Luz Pimentel appreciates her parents’ encouragement.

“I think that’s one of the things that’s helped me, and I have an amazing support system,” Luz said about her family. “I can always go back to them.”

Thanks to her parents, José and Luz Pimentel, the doors of education and a better life were opened to her.

“I was the firstborn, and they kind of wanted to seek a better life where I could grow up in,” she said.

José Pimentel came to Texas in the 1970s with his family to explore. When he was young he decided to stay because he liked it.

José and Luz Pimentel are from Michoacan, in Northern Central Mexico. The Pimentels return to Michoacan every June to visit family.

“My dad — he’s very hardworking, he always expects us to do good,” Luz said. “It’s not the pushy kind, but you can always do great things. Mom — she’s more like the intermediate type, she’s the mediator. She helps me out more in the social part of life.”



Family and friends

The Pimentels are a close family. Luz has three younger siblings, Cynthia, Philip and Susana.

“It’s very close family. We do things together — we start singing in the living room,” Luz said. “It’s a very odd, very close family. My brothers and sister wouldn’t say so, but they know it.”

She will be the first to leave home for college. Her father has always tried to be good friends with his daughter, and will miss her. But he is excited for her opportunity.

“Emotionally I’ve prepared myself — it’s not going to be easy knowing she’s going to be hours away from here. It’s like the little bird’s time to fly away. I knew someday that was going to happen,” José Pimentel said. “We’re always together — weekends, holidays we’re always together.”

The family has laid down roots in Joshua. Luz Pimentel has experienced life here and nowhere else. They have shared many memories here.

Luz and her siblings kept themselves entertained by playing at a nearby pond and making up their own games.

“Then we’d also have little treasure hunts, I would also end up being the coordinator.”

The Pimentel children would also collect sticks to build forts in their backyard. Later they added in bricks but never built a roof on the structure.



School’s in

Her creativity and other skills baffle Luz. She does not classify herself as right- or left-brained.

“I have no idea where my brain is at. I don’t fit a mold,” she said. “I draw and stuff, and I do math.”

So what does a high school girl who is intelligent and hardworking do with her friends?

“When we’re not freaking out about tests and studying, we do random stuff,” she said.

She spends her weekends roaming the mall, watching movies and hanging out.

But when school is in session, it is time to hit the books and participate in clubs.

Luz Pimentel never thought she would be involved in so many activities. She started out playing the clarinet in band and thought that was as far as she would extend herself.

She started playing the clarinet in sixth grade.

“[I like] the fact that you could still do different things and still be a part of the band,” Luz Pimentel said.

She also competed in UIL for social studies and calculator. She is a member of the National Honor Society, Amnesty International and her own creation, Students for the American Dream.

“I first became aware of Luz a couple of summers ago,” JHS Principal Mick Cochran said. “I went to proctor a credit-by-exam for Spanish, and she was a better speaker and more fluent than the person on the tape for the exam. So that’s when I first noticed I had a really special student on my hands. Since then I’ve just seen her grow as a school leader. She’s just so well rounded — she’s very, very intelligent, but not so intelligent that she doesn’t have any interest anywhere else. She’s just a super, so respectful, wonderful kid — just the kind you want around all the time.”

Luz Pimentel has received many awards throughout her academic and extracurricular career. She is a National Merit Hispanic Scholar. She was awarded the Ronald McDonald Scholarship. She has been to state UIL competitions for three years, has been in the UIL all-region and all-area bands, and the UIL state solo and ensemble band. She was part of a team that won UIL district meets in calculator and was in the regional UIL calculator competition. She has received several awards for her work in Advanced Placement classes.

One of the most recent ways she has been involved in JHS was through her creation of Students for the American Dream. The group formed in response to rumors of a school walkout, protesting the recent HR 4437, a House bill that would make it a felony to be in the country illegally and proposes the building of fences along portions of the U.S.-Mexico border. Luz and other classmates formed the organization as a way to educate fellow JHS students about immigration misconceptions and problems. Their main purpose was to conduct a letter-writing campaign.

“It was basically that there were some people wanting to do a walkout,” she said. “I suggested that we do something different, something that would be informative instead of just showy.”

The students stayed at school instead of hosting a walkout protest and held an educational assembly to inform students about bills being proposed in Congress and the Senate. She and other students shared testimonies, told the history of immigration and spoke about other similar topics. The club also printed form letters to give students the opportunity to write to different government leaders.

The faculty was thankful for her alternative idea.

“She did a great job with helping me avoid our walkout earlier in the year,” Cochran said. “I think it says a lot about a kid that, at her age, when she speaks, people listen. That doesn’t always happen with teenagers.”

She hopes students will continue the organization after she leaves because immigration topics will be important during future elections.



Chasing destiny

Her American dream is “to be happy at the end — just to be satisfied, whatever you do you have to be satisfied with it,” she said.

She is satisfied with her high school experience. It has flown by, but she remembers the many things she has learned.

“[I’ve received a] foundation for the future, a very good foundation,” she said. “The teachers — they’ve helped me grow both academically and emotionally.”

With her several scholarships, Luz Pimentel has the money for a great education and an equivalent passion.

“I want to do something that’s going to make a difference for other people and that I can see the difference being made, and going into politics,” she said. “You never know what you’ll end up doing.

“I want to focus on youth. A lot of people don’t do that. I want to focus on younger generations. I had so many people help me and just to help people like they’ve helped me.”

Luz hopes to inspire people with her actions through life.

“She’s left a legacy here for kids to follow,” Cochran said.



Allison Davis can be reached at 817-645-2441, ext. 2338, or

features@trcle.com.