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In the lab and in life, St. Paul VI senior Camila Gutierrez sees ‘the beauty in every little thing’

Leslie Miller | Catholic Herald Staff Writer

Camila Gutierrez, a senior at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, loves working in the lab. She has won international science awards and had her work published in student journals. EILEEN CURREN, ST. PAUL VI | COURTESY

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Camila Gutierrez tests cell cultures in the Biosafety Level 2 Lab at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly. EILEEN CURREN, ST. PAUL VI | COURTESY

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When Camila Gutierrez is in the science lab, she can “appreciate
the beauty of the small things — and I mean very small things,” she said.
“Under the microscope, everything has an order to it, and everything is so
perfect. Sometimes it does help you see the beauty in every little thing.”

 

A senior at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly,
Gutierrez excels at science and research, but she also has a heart for service,
a love of animals and a positive outlook in the face of uncertainty.

 

She’s won international science awards and had her work published
in student science journals. Her can-do approach has helped her turn the stress
and uncertainty of high school during a global pandemic into opportunities to
explore and challenge herself in new ways.

 

When a much-anticipated cultural exchange trip to Japan through
the High School Diplomats scholarship program was put on hold because of the
pandemic, she pivoted gracefully to another project, assembling a team to join
a six-week independent research program studying pandemic science online with a
biology professor at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Ind. “It’s
fascinating to discuss the epidemiology of viruses,” she said.

 

Gutierrez is bilingual; her parents are electrical engineers who
came to the United States from Colombia as graduate students. Yearly trips back
to visit relatives have given her a global outlook, a love of international
travel and “a deep desire to serve my Hispanic community,” she said. In July
2019, she traveled with her dad, sister and cousin on a medical mission trip
with Somos Amigos, a nonprofit that takes U.S. doctors, nurses and dentists to
volunteer at a rural health clinic. She was the youngest Spanish translator on
the trip. “It helped me see not only how fortunate I am (to have access to
health care), but to see people coming together for a common cause to help with
cross-cultural disparities,” she said.

 

On Saturdays, she works as a veterinary assistant intern at
Clarendon Animal Care in Arlington, where she takes vitals, helps run tests,
assists with X-rays and restocks supplies.

 

“I love animals, and I’d love to work at the intersection of
global health and veterinary science,” said Gutierrez, who’s still finalizing
college plans. She took the initiative to seek out the volunteer gig at the end
of eighth grade, after “getting brushed off by four or five other vets who said
‘Sorry, you’re too young.’ ”

 

Gutierrez, who’s done agility training with her own dog, a small
white Coton de Tuléar, founded Paws Fur a Good Cause, an animal service club
that organizes projects for local animal shelters and brings in animal experts,
such as therapy dog handlers, to speak to students. “One of our first meetings
was packed, because everybody wanted to pet the dogs,” she said.

 

Her work at the vet clinic led to independent research on the
link between popular grain-free diets and canine dilated cardiomyopathy, a type
of heart disease in dogs. The Food and Drug Administration is looking into the
connection, and Gutierrez made a video about it, which won first place in the
Girls International Three-Minute Science Competition.

 

She’s also done independent research on the use of an antibiotic
called thiostrepton as a possible treatment to inhibit the proliferation of
cancer cells, which she got interested in last year “during study hall, when I
found myself in the library reading Science magazine,” she said. Her reading
progressed to testing different concentrations of the antibiotic with cell
cultures in the lab, and writing an article for the international Young
Scientists Journal.

 

But she doesn’t spend all her time in the lab. “I’m not a geek, I
also like hanging out with friends and I like to dance,” she said. Her
non-science activities include being president of Pink and White, a PVI
religious service club for girls. “It allows me to give back to the community,
while also growing deeper in my faith,” she said.

 

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