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Erick Martínez Juárez, a Bainbridge resident, has achieved a level of success that has taken him to greater heights. Juárez is the second son of migrant farmworkers Maricela and Loreto Juarez. Having lived in poverty and had a primary school education, Juárez’s parents migrated to the United States from Mexico in the mid-1980s in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families. The couple beat the odds by having a strong work ethic, which they passed on to Juarez and their other children, who continue to prosper today.

As a child, Juárez spent most of his time surrounded by family and other farm workers with whom he shared a house. The house was small and had no air conditioning during the hottest months. Juárez wasn’t much of a farm worker, but his father would take him and his siblings to work to show them the essence of hard work.

Juárez attended school in Attapulugus, where African Americans and Hispanics made up the majority. In second grade, a teacher saw that Juárez was “special” and took the initiative to give him a test that revealed that he was “gifted.” This experience changed Juárez’s dynamic circle and placed him around other “gifted” students, opening up another world so different from his own.

In Bainbridge High School, Juárez encountered a similar environment with the majority of the students being African Americans and Caucasian. He stated, “Going to school at Bainbridge High, I saw that half of the school was black and the other half was white. Less than 2% are Latinos.” Juárez recalled how he felt alone because he couldn’t find someone who looked like him in school. His loneliness became a driving force for his studies, and he excelled exponentially. He also volunteered over the summer as a Spanish interpreter for the Emory Framework project, which played a big part in his life. “It was something new, and it planted the seed of me seeing myself doing something like this later,” He explained. The Emory Farmworker program provides free health screenings through mobile clinics and organizations. This experience inspired him to pursue medical school. In 2010, Juárez was the first Hispanic valedictorian of his class to graduate from Bainbridge High School.

After high school, he applied to the United States Military Academy West Point and Harvard University, which he got into, but he decided to go to West Point. Juarez “wanted to give back to his country in the most honorable way possible.” However, Juárez’s plans changed when one of his high school friends died in a car accident, and he realized that he wasn’t joining the military academy for the right reasons. He left the academy after his first year. Later, he decided to spend some time soul-searching.

Eventually, he re-applied to Harvard, and to his surprise, he was accepted a second time and started in the fall of 2011. Juárez attended Harvard on a merit-based scholarship and financial aid package. He stated, “A lot of people in these parts of the country don’t have access to nor do they think they can get in, but these schools have a lot of wealth and funds for essentially poor people like me to go to those free of charge.” He graduated with honors and a BA in the neurobiology program in 2015. After graduating from Harvard, he enrolled in Augusta University and completed his medical degree. He is continuing his studies in neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Juárez will complete his residency program in December 2025. He has yet to determine where he would like to continue to work. He predetermined that he would practice in California for a few years, but intends to spend the bulk of his career in Georgia.

Additionally, Juárez is interested in going into politics later in his career. He believes the best environment to pursue this goal is in Georgia. When Juárez is not working in residency, he loves to spend time with his girlfriend and exercising.