How a Dallas ISD graduating senior's path took him to Dartmouth

Graduation season has come to North Texas. One Dallas ISD senior is not just breaking barriers as the first member of his family to attend college, but he plans to pursue a career that he says saved his father's life.

David Guerrero is the valedictorian at W.H. Adamson High School. This fall he will be attending Dartmouth on a full-ride scholarship.

"I'm blessed to have this opportunity. My brother and my sister can't even believe it sometimes; they didn't go to college and they're just proud of me," said Guerrero.

Getting to this point has taken a lot of dedication.

"I tried my best to be really involved in everything. I did a bunch of sports, I wrestled, I ran track, I played soccer for two years. I'm the captain of the math club," he said.

Guerrero will also graduate with an associate's degree from Dallas College later this month.

"My college graduation is actually before my high school graduation, so there's going to be a time where I have an associate's before I have a high school degree," he said.

He says getting that acceptance letter to Dartmouth was a dream come true; his biggest motivation has been his parents.

"I just realize I can't waste their sacrifices, especially when I went back to Mexico for the first time, I saw my dad crying, just bawling his eyes out because he hasn't seen his mom in 20 years, and I'm just thinking he gave that up just for me," said Guerrero.

Guerrero plans to study computer science with an emphasis on artificial intelligence, because he says it saved his dad's life. Last summer, his dad began experiencing early symptoms of a heart attack. As the symptoms worsened, they turned to AI for help.

"It told him he could have been having a heart attack, so we rushed to the hospital. I can't believe 30 minutes of teaching my dad how to use ChatGPT actually saved his life. If it can save his life, who else can it save?" said Guerrero.