Personal Statement

My name is Deztiny Alejandra Villalpando-Alvarez, I was born and raised in Merced, California.
Merced is located in the central valley. We are 2 hours away from Yosemite National Park,
beaches, mountains and snow during the winter. I enjoy going on road trips with my mom and
sisters and listening to music. I also like attending concerts in the bigger cities around us.
Overall, I would say I’m a relaxed person who enjoys being in my elements, nature and music.

Throughout my school year I feel as though I have always had a hard time learning compared
to other students . I've struggled to keep my grades up during most school years, learning new
things has never come easy to me. When I got to junior high, I began to rebel and wanted to just
quit trying. At one point, the principal and counselor had to schedule a meeting with my mom to
talk about my grades. My mom was disappointed and I started crying during the meeting. The
pressure was too much and I started to give up and stopped caring about my grades even
more. It was too much stress trying to keep up and I just could not comprehend what we were
being taught. During the meeting, they advised us that they offer free tutoring after school. I was
hesitant to try it out because I thought I would be embarrassed seeing other students there.
Turns out, I was right, I was embarrassed but then it occurred to me that them being there
means that they were struggling too. I decided to keep attending at least once per week and get
help as needed. My grades still struggled and to be honest, I still didn't care much about my
grades. After all, I would hear students talk about how junior high grades don't matter. Still, I
wanted to take advantage of the free services offered by the school district. Although my grades
still suffered, it helped me get comfortable with the idea of asking for help when needed. The
fact that the school offered free tutoring was pretty cool. I wish more people would take
advantage of these opportunities. It's not fun starting after school but sometimes a little bit of
sacrifice will make you better. I’m glad I was able to take advantage of those services and hope
that more students do too.

During my freshman year everyone was quarantined because of Covid and we did online
learning which was tough for me because all the assignments we did were on computer which
wasn't fun and made it even harder to learn. At home there were distractions which made it
easier for me to not pay attention. I knew for highschool I needed to take school more seriously
but online learning made it hard to motivate myself to learn and pay attention . During my
sophomore year my grades were still not the best because I didn't feel motivated enough to do
my work and at the time it was the first time in almost a year being back with students and
teachers and having to do physical assignments so getting used to that was hard and getting
back into that routine was a struggle for me since I was used to basically not doing anything.
Half my sophomore year I didn't have friends but then I met someone who introduced me to her
friends and they were all opposite of me , they had super good grades, they were in AP classes
and also were doing CSF forms to get a white robe . When they told me that It made me think
about college more and that I needed to take things more seriously if I wanted to go into college.
My junior year I was more dedicated to my school work and my grades were way better than the
previous year. This year I plan on staying on top of everything and sticking with A’s and B+ only
because I want to prove to myself that I can do it and that I had that hard work in me this whole
time and that I just needed a push to help me work harder.

My sophomore year I was in a child development class which focused on how to take care of a
child , my junior year I was in health & family living which focused on mental , emotional , and
physical health , this year I am currently in a class that focuses more about teaching and I will
be going to sites to be a teacher's assistant and working with elementary school students. Since
my first year in the pathway I felt inspired to do something that involves children after learning
so much about them and how to communicate or care for a child . My teacher for that class was
also someone who inspired me because she talked about her life experiences which is kind of
like a reminder to me that through any obstacles I can still have a good career. I do have other
teachers that also inspired me as well and I love how they bond with students and I feel like
being a teacher is something I can do.I have 5 siblings so that's also another reason why the
education career inspires me. With me having all younger siblings from age 3-15yrs old I feel
like I know how to manage all of the ages of school including my age because I know first hand
how it is to be someone who's 16-18. From these classes I have taken it has really opened my
eyes to lots of things about children that I never noticed , at the time when I took my child
development class my sister was about 4 years old and learning about toddlers it really showed
me kind of her perspective on things and so when she would do or say certain things it would
automatically click that , that was something I have learned from class.

My leadership experience started when I was as young as 6 years old. My mom signed me up
for ballet. I was fairly good and I would be chosen to perform solo’s during shows as well as
group dances. During group performances, many times I was the leader in the group. I learned
to give direction and to correct when necessary. I am the oldest child in my family. I have five
younger siblings but I only live with two of them. As you can imagine, being the oldest comes
with lots of responsibilities. Being the oldest means I have to set positive examples for my
siblings because they look up to me and they are always watching. My mom says kids are
sponges and they will learn behaviors that they see other people do. This makes me think twice
about the way I behave and the things that I say. I would never want them to say that they
learned something negative from me. Being the oldest also means that my mom will put me in
charge of some things. For example, my sister and I have chores that we are supposed to do
after school. I'm incharge of making sure my younger sister completes her chores. Now that I’m
older, my mom will go out and run errands and she leaves me in charge of my two younger
siblings. Being that I am the oldest, my younger siblings see me as a leader whether I try to be
or not. They listen to what I say for the most part and will follow my lead. Being the oldest has
helped develop leadership skills because I am given more responsibility than my younger
siblings. I’m currently trying to use my leadership skills with my sophomore sister. She is not
prioritizing her school work and I’m trying to lead by example and giving her advice.