Senior Carlos Lopez Martinez was a freshman when he noticed the lack of safe spaces for Latinx students in the Parker community, and decided that needed to change.

After talking to friends at other schools and in the Parker community, Lopez Martinez decided to create the Latin American Student Organization (LASO), in order to provide himself and his peers an opportunity to discuss shared experiences.

“When I first came to Parker,” Lopez Martinez said, “it was a little disorienting. I created LASO because I needed a space, and I thought other people might need it, too. Looking around, there aren’t that many Latinx people at Parker. We needed a space”

Two years after LASO’s creation, the Princeton Prize in Race Relations has recognized Lopez Martinez for the space he has built within the Parker community and awarded him a Certificate of Accomplishment. He was one of three certificate-winners in the Chicagoland area.

Lopez Martinez considers creating LASO to be one of his biggest accomplishments to date. “It has been invaluable. It’s helped so many of us understand our own identities, and how we fit into this school.”

The Princeton Prize in Race Relations, founded in fall 2003, was created by Princeton alumnus Henry Von Kohorn in an effort to support high school students working to improve race relations within their schools.

The idea, according to Von Kohorn, is that recognition of their work motivates students to continue to foster positive race relations as they enter college and beyond. Von Kohorn aims to create a cycle that benefits society for decades to come through his committee.

Lopez Martinez was nominated by a sponsor at the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, an organization that provides four-year high school scholarships to promising high school students around Chicago.

“I decided to do it,” Lopez Martinez said. “Why not? What can I lose, nothing. Recognition for something like LASO really, really means a lot.”

Around 15 students attend each LASO meeting. “LASO is a really great space for Latinx students to talk and get to know one another,” junior Isabella Gomez-Barrientos said. “By the end of the year we are all close, we bond over common experiences that bring us together a s a community.”

Prizes and Certificates of Accomplishment were awarded in downtown Chicago this May by volunteers. At the reception, Lopez Martinez spoke about his experiences with race throughout his life.

“The first time I remember being marginalized as a Latinx person, I was in second grade,” Lopez Martinez said. “A teacher told me I didn’t know how to speak English. I came here when I was two––I could speak English as well as anyone else. But because I had a slight accent, she assumed I couldn’t speak it.”

Lopez Martinez credits experiences like these for inspiring him to create LASO. “LASO is a place where I can talk about instances like that one with a group of people who really understand,” he said. “It’s important to feel and be understood.”

According to Lopez Martinez, a lot of students don’t realize how race affects their everyday lives before having a space in which to share their experiences. Lopez Martinez considers himself to be one of these students.

“A little while before that instance, on the first day of school, my teacher asked me my name. I answered Carlos Lopez Martinez,” he said.“She yelled at me, telling me that I couldn’t possibly have two last names. She screamed until I told her it was only Lopez, and for years and years, I only carried Lopez. Because of that one teacher.”

Before starting LASO, Lopez Martinez only used “Lopez” as his last name. “LASO made me realize I shouldn’t have to conform. I have two last names––why can’t I carry them both? And proudly?” Starting in his sophomore year, Lopez Martinez went back to using both of his last names with confidence.

After the speech, Lopez Martinez had the opportunity to meet dozens of Princeton alumni, spectators, and fellow winners. “It was amazing to talk to the other winners, and hear what they have been doing,” he said. “There were so many great ideas flying in the air––I loved absorbing their thoughts, and sharing mine with them.”