After witnessing first hand the civil war in Colombia and losing her father, Paula Daniela Campos Gonzales, who goes by Danny Campos, wants to give back to her country by building an orphanage.

Campos was born in Bogota, Colombia on Sept. 8, 1998. She moved to Minnesota in Nov. 2007 in response to the opportunity of a better life for her family here and to get away from the ongoing civil war.

According to Campos, her dad was a politician trying to uncover some dirty business going on and was murdered by government officials. Therefore she considers herself a victim of the ongoing violence in Colombia and wants to help others who are going through similar situations.

“I was a victim of violence in Colombia myself I was lucky enough that I still have my mom with me, but there’s a lot of children that lose both their parents. They have to witness that and they’re very poor. They have no where to go,” Campos said. “ I just want to be able to help those children not have to go through situations.”

By living in Colombia and knowing first hand how bad the situation is there, Campos said she has developed a mindset to help others. Through her liking of biology and her hope to help others, she wants to become a surgeon.

“I kind of want to follow in my dads footsteps to just help the people who really are kind and needed in this world,” Campos said. “My interest is medicine so I want to be able to be a surgeon to help kids who need it too, but also even if they don’t have health problems I just want to be able to give them a safe place to be.”

In addition to helping others by becoming a surgeon, Campos wants to open an orphanage in Colombia to help those suffering from the ongoing Civil War.

“I think my biggest goal in life is to start an orphanage for kids in Colombia,” Campos said. “There’s a civil war that’s been going on in Colombia for over half a century and I’m kind of a victim of it, but it’s more like I’ve seen how it’s affected my community so I want to do something about it.”

Campos said she believes her goal of helping others will be best fulfilled once she becomes a surgeon and can put much of her income toward helping others.

“I want to be a surgeon and a lot of people have asked me if I want to do it for the income” Campos said. “I always say even if I get a lot of money, I’m going to keep living the way I live right now because I want to use any extra money that I get into building it and helping develop it with a good education program and good nutrition for the kids.”