WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Among the victims of Monday night's shooting at Michigan State University is a student from southwest Florida.
"At the end of the day, everything will be worth it," Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez said.
That's Huapilla-Perez during better times. In a previous interview, the eventual Michigan State University student was talking about hard work paying off.
"It'll just make whatever you do more special," the Immokalee High School graduate said.
The former class president enrolled at Michigan State University with the help of a scholarship for children of migrant workers. Lupe, as her family and friends call her, is studying hospitality business.
Ed Tillet is the director of the school's multicultural business program.
"It's really challenging to hear that one of your students, you know, is hospitalized and, you know, as they reported, you know, life-threatening for all five victims that were hospitalized," he said. "So, knowing that student is fighting right now for her life is really a challenging thing."
Huapilla-Perez is in a Michigan hospital after she was shot. A gunman opened fire on Michigan State's campus Monday night, killing three other students and wounding five.
Her community back in Immokalee is heartbroken.
"Because to have a young Latina leader in the community go to school and have this happen to her, you know, we are devastated," resident Lupita Vazquez Reyes said.
Huapilla-Perez's sister created a GoFundMe page to help pay for the family's cost of travel and medical care.
"As a migrant family from south Florida, we immediately traveled to Michigan to be with Lupe and are now eyeing costs that will further burden us at this incredibly difficult time," she wrote. "She is a long way from returning to us as she was. Being away from home, our family will be unable to work while monthly bills will continue to mount. Doctors tell us that even in improving conditions, the process for a full recovery will take months of care and subsequent rehabilitation."
The goal on the GoFundMe page was $50,000. As of Thursday evening, donations to help Huapilla-Perez and her family were well over $300,000.
