Students of the Future: Daniela Palomares

This is the eighth in a series of articles covering extraordinary students at Cedar Falls High School. In this issue we will be looking at senior Daniela Palomares and her goals to become a police officer and move her way up through that particular field. 

Palomares plans to go to Iowa Central and then transfer to a four-year university to major in criminal justice. She said, “I grew up in a not so good neighborhood, and I would see a lot of police officers in my area, so that sparked my interest in becoming a police officer.” 

She took CAPS, which helped her gain real world experience and recommended the program to other students. During her junior year she also took classes revolving around her future career, hoping that all of this would prepare her for college.

When Palomares becomes a police officer, she hopes she can be there for people and help them. Unfortunately, the topic around police officers has been pretty mixed. Many police officers have been hurt and/or killed, and some police officers have also been wrongly hurting or killing others. Palomares said she hopes she can change people’s perspective on police officers and wants to be the best officer she can be.

“You see things on the news about how police officers are getting killed, or how police officers are killing people. It’s been kinda hard, but if you’re getting prepared, you shouldn’t have any problem at all,” Palomares said.

Ten years from now, Palomares said she hopes to see herself happy, healthy and moving up through law enforcement positions. She wants to be a person people can rely on, one that helps others and one she says that God wants her to become. “The world needs a lot of kindness right now,” she said. 

For dreamers, she also said, “Don’t give up. Keep continuing your dream. There’s a lot of people that give up in school and pursue other things, but, if you are really set on what you want to do, then just pursue it.