 Celina Sotomayor put great stress on the value of education ; she bought the Encyclopædia Britannica for her children , something unusual in the housing projects . Despite the distance between the two , which became even worse after her father 's death and which was not fully reconciled until decades later , Sotomayor has credited her mother with being her " life inspiration " . For grammar school , Sotomayor attended Blessed Sacrament School in <unk> , where she was valedictorian and had a near @-@ perfect attendance record . Although underage , Sotomayor worked at a local retail store and a hospital . Sotomayor passed the entrance tests for and then attended Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx . Meanwhile , the Bronxdale Houses had fallen victim to increasing heroin use , crime , and the emergence of the Black Spades gang . In 1970 , the family found refuge by moving to Co @-@ op City in the Northeast Bronx . At Cardinal Spellman , Sotomayor was on the forensics team and was elected to the student government . She graduated as valedictorian in 1972 . 
