Personal Statement

9-13-23

Hi, my name is Arleth Jocelyn Silva. I grew up in a rural yet residential area in between
Merced and Atwater. I went to Atwater schools up till High School. I did go to a Merced school
one year in second grade but my mom wanted us to have better education and enjoy our years
with our friends so she made a sacrifice to take us to Atwater schools by driving us every
morning at 4am to our babysitters to attend those schools. As I was graduating 8th grade I
decided I’d rather make it easier on my mom and attend a Merced High School and take the
bus. This was a huge jump for me but I was ready to do it and I did. I am now a senior at El
Capitan graduating this year in 2024.
I would say the greatest talent I have discovered about myself is treat making. I love
making special chocolate dipped treats. I have made lots of progress throughout the years. It all
started with my mom; we tried everything together. She recommended trying a video she saw
on facebook which was dipping strawberries in chocolate. Since they were coming out great we
decided to practice making other treats as well, like chocolate dipped cake pops, oreos,
pretzels, and rice krispies. With this passion project I became closer with my mom and got
creative by changing up designs and trying new themed characters. I stopped for two years…
but on Valentine’s Day last year I tried it out one more time. I realized how much I missed it and
love making chocolate dipped everything. It makes me happy and excited to try new things and
see the reactions of my customers. I made an instagram account trying to advertise my treats
and all the themed ones I’ve made showing I can do whatever people order. I got lots of orders
on Valentine’s Day as well as on Mother’s Day. I have yet to make cards or stickers of my logo,
including my instagram name, but I think about possible designs all the time. Yes, there have
been times I’ve wanted to give up because of how stressful it became but my mom was always
on my side pushing me that I can not only do it, but do better with each order. I love making my
mom proud of me with my treats. I love how she sometimes posts my strawberries and says one
thing in particular “So proud of my Pacheco”, that’s a saying I always push myself to hear. My
mom is the reason I developed so much throughout and continuing to develop.
Child Development has had the biggest impact on my life. I’ve always known I had a
connection with children ever since I grew up with plenty (still am now) and babysat lots of them.
Everytime I see a baby or toddler, I always have to try to make them smile. I’ve volunteered at
the zoo dressed as a polar bear to take pictures and greet kids as well as made Christmas trees
out of old books at the library for kids. I helped coach disabled children how to play soccer for
about three years and counting. I also became a cabin leader at Camp Green Meadows. These
were all very fun and teachable moments I've learned from and enjoyed. It does get a little
uncomfortable at times when you don’t know how to make that connection with a certain child
but it pushes me to try harder. Child Development taught me how to interact with children as
well as how they grow, learn, and develop into a mindset/personality of their own. I was
fascinated by how much I learned about children starting from pregnancy to adulthood, diseases
and genetic infections that can either affect a newborn within the womb and out. Going through
with this capstone I am now in Careers with infants and toddlers. It is a two period class that we
learn, do assignments, and take quizzes. The second period allows us hands-on experience
with observing children as well as getting extra experience on how to handle them and care for
them. I am trying to pursue a career of becoming an ultrasound technician or even a teacher.
Nothing makes me happier than to make children smile and have a bond with them. What I’ve
learned from all of these experiences is every child is different in their own way, they handle all
their own emotions and situations in their own way. That’s what makes children unique and
special in only a way they can be.
I was a leader to many kids. During my times when I had been volunteering with children
I was their role model so I always tried to do above and beyond to guarantee that these children
were comfortable with me but also had fun. I made fun games to play and start a conversation
with the girls because it was two different schools joined together at Camp Green Meadows. For
this game I had a ball and it had multiple questions written on it and as they would throw the ball
they had to answer the question they landed on, doing this I would ask them about it a little
deeper so I can get a better understanding of who they were and to show the other girls who
they were as well. It’s always great to express similar interests especially as we’re young and
develop a mindset that it’s easy to talk to others. The girls were very good friends at the end of
the day, some have gotten out of their shells being able to talk and play with the girls from the
other school as well as girls from their own school. Another example is when I lead the kids
learn how to play soccer and applaud/compliment them that they were doing a great job making
sure they were able to feel confident enough to play on their own and score. It took some time
since they aren’t the easiest at being patient. Soon they were able to play against other teams
on their own and work as a team. It was amazing to see how much they progressed throughout
a short time. Overall being a leader and helping others lead as well was a great experience and
educational task to work on with others also myself.
Growing up with a young mom had really affected my eldest siblings the most. My two
oldest siblings have less of a connection with my mom than us. Not having a great childhood or
close connection with my mom, my brother looked at drugs as a lay off to have fun. My brother,
Adrien was getting into lots of fights when he was young, more in high school. He also began
drinking and doing drugs at that time too. My mom had gotten multiple calls before being told
that they found my brother on their lawn or in front of a store passed out from drinking, my mom
having no one to take care of us she had taken us with her. We were there every ride picking up
my brother helping him relax and throw up in a bag. He would sell our stuff to get money for
drugs such as tv’s, headphones, and my younger brother's xbox. Soon my brother had decided
with my mom that he would try living in Georgia with my grandmother and tio for a while to see if
he can live better out there. He had been doing great for a couple years till four years ago he
had gotten in trouble for striking someone and an officer while under the influence. He went to
trial, they wanted to give him 3-5 years. My mom had brought him back to California when she
came back from her visit. As he was living with us, he was doing great, he had a job that he was
attending every day, playing video games with my brother, even going out and about with us
shopping or visiting other families. My brother had also been going to Church with us because
he knew he needed help and strength. One day we noticed he was going back and forth inside
and outside and as he would come in, he would smell like strong weed as his eyes were red as
well. My brother always said everyone was out to get him and no one loved him. We definitely
believe my brother has a mental illness as well but never wanted to get checked out by doctors.
My mom soon noticed this and told him he needed to leave if he was going to keep this up. We
ended up kicking him out. We gave him the option of living in the garage or backyard rather than
on the streets. He continues to get worse. The drugs and alcohol made it 10x worse with his
mental illness of everyone out to get him and hearing noises. It got so bad that my brother
started kicking down our front doors, cursing us out (not being able to recognize us), and even
threatening us. We were so scared of him but tried to give him food and water whenever we
could, he still wasn’t allowed inside. Once he broke our only front door we had to nail it for the
night and sleep in a hotel for the night because he would’ve been back. We all feel for my
brother and hope he will get the help he needs. One time I was sleeping on the couch and my
little sister had left the back door unlocked allowing my brother to come in. I had woken up to my
brother holding a knife watching me. I was so shocked and just yelled “What are you doing”, it
seemed like he snapped out of it and dropped it then couldn’t even believe what he had been
doing himself. We had to hide our knives since that day. My heart was beating out of my chest
scared because I never thought my loving big brother would ever be seen like that. All these
incidents we had to call the cops as well as my dad before that because he could talk to him
and control him. My brother has recently been arrested. He refuses to come home.Our family
loves our brother no matter what and hope he’ll get better. This affected some of my academic
achievement because we were always on our toes or calling the cops distracted by how my
brother was doing and if we had to be worried. We had to spend the night in a hotel three times.
I had a test one of those nights barely getting any sleep and trying to study as much as I could
in the morning. Drug and alcohol addiction is hard to overcome especially with a mental illness.
We’re still trying to help him as much as we can, but he must be the one to overcome this and
push himself to live a better lifestyle. Families of addicts or even mental illness members must
also fight hard too. This is my experience with how this affects our family as well as others. My
family and I have not yet overcame this challenge but I have hopes that we will one day be a
happy family once again.