Zermeno 1

Christopher Zermeno English 100 & 1A Prof. Ogden 10/21/2013 Educational Background I have found out that through hard work and determination anything is possible. Growing up as a kid I was always an A student. It may sound like cockiness but its the truth. It all changed when I would get to high school. My grades dropped and my life would take a different route than I had expected. I hung out with the wrong people and did some stuff that wasnt good for me, but I dont regret anything because those things are what made me who I am today. I will describe my years in kindergarten through sixth grade. Also my seventh and eighth grade years as well as my four years in high school and to where I am today in college. When I was younger I was always into outer space and what the world had out there. I really liked science and math which is some peoples worst subjects. I till this day love numbers. I love being able to add, multiply and do all sorts of things with numbers. I would read books about space and rockets. I would tell myself that I will one day become an Aerospace Engineer. I say I had a growth mindset back then because I was always excited when we had math tests and I knew that for every good grade I got it was one step closer to my goal of becoming an Engineer. Growth Mindset is something that Carol Dweck came up with. In her PowerPoint she states that a growth mindset person embraces challenges First you embrace challenges, because you know that youll come out stronger on the other side. This is the mentality I had when I would have math tests. Angela Lee Duckworth talks about Grit in her video Grit. She says that Grit is passion and perseverance for very long term goals. Grit only comes through a growth mindset. Grit and Growth mindset come as two, you have embrace challenges and work hard for your long term goals. When I was young I would like to see how fast I could solve a problem. When we took multiplication tests friends would tell me that I couldnt get all the questions right in less than a

Zermeno 2

minute. I would come home and have practice tests and tell my mom to time me. My fastest time was finishing a multiplication test in 45 seconds. I got 100 percent on it. I was so happy because I proved to myself that I can achieve my goal by working hard. This is also shown in the video Never, Ever Give Up, Arthurs Inspirational Transformation! also known as Yoga Man. Arthur was told by his doctors that he would never walk again. He didnt want that to happen so he started doing yoga and exercising, he would eventually lose weight and was able to run by the end of the video. He worked real hard to accomplish his dreams and now he is a big inspiration to me. When I was younger I would score advance on the State tests and get awards. When I was in middle school I got a student of the month certificate every year. I had perfect attendance and good grades. Due to my scores and good grades I would get accepted to the G.A.T.E. program. G.A.T.E is a program that the government has to help kids that are considered Gifted get ahead or take harder classes to get challenged. In the Department of Education website they say The Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program, authorized by California Education Code (EC) sections 52200-52212 provides funding for local educational agencies (LEAs) to develop unique education opportunities for high-achieving and underachieving pupils in California public elementary and secondary schools who have been identified as gifted and talented. Special efforts are made to ensure that pupils from economically disadvantaged and varying cultural backgrounds are provided with full participation in these unique opportunities. In The Pact by Dr. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Dr. Rameck Hunt, Rameck was also accepted into the G.A.T.E program and took classes at another school like me. He writes In the second Grade I scored high enough on a placement test to enter the Plainfield public-school systems gifted and talented program. We both scored high enough on our placement tests and got accepted into the G.A.T.E. program. For me though the classes were fun but not challenging enough like teachers said they

Zermeno 3

would be. I liked to get challenged and be able to work on a problem for hours because when I got the answer at the end I felt accomplished and happy with myself. I would stay in the program till my sixth grade when my school canceled it. In sixth grade I would have a teacher that would later become one of my inspirations to learn English and read. She would read to us and go into detail about the section she just finished reading. I would say she was the first teacher that taught me how to annotate my readings. I would later take this technique to my following two years in Junior High. In seventh and eighth grade I was able to get by without really trying. My mom would ask me Mijo why dont I ever see you sit down and read a book or do homework? I would tell my mom I dont need to read to a book and she would reply with most parents would say Well it wouldnt hurt if you did. In The Freedom Writers Diary diary 99 states that their mother would have clichs like What doesnt kill you makes you stronger! I did the all my assignments and acquired As but I didnt really put a lot of effort into them. I remember one time when I was in fifth grade that I got a C and I felt like I had let myself down. That was the only C I had gotten in my k-8th career. In my seventh and eighth grade years my English teachers made English fun for me. Even though I had to write many essays I enjoyed their classes. They taught me how to set up essays and what a topic sentence was. They both had some strategic learning methods. My eighth grade English teacher would sometimes show us songs and make us compare them to what we were reading. In the book Freedom Writers Diary Ms. Gruwell had her own teaching method it was to make her students create a movie of a book they had finished reading. Ms. Gruwell has some pretty amazing teaching methods. Our class just read a book called Durango Street, and now we are making a movie of it. Both Ms. Gruwell and my eighth grade teacher had ways to make a reading more interesting and enjoyable. My math teacher during eighth grade was really

Zermeno 4

strict. I couldnt get one problem wrong or she would scream at me. She would do this to all her students. Due to her strictness I strived to get all my answers right and do all my work by the end of the year I was ranked number one in her class with a 99.8%. I felt really happy but when I took the exam to get into geometry for my freshman year I failed the test. I did really horrible which devastated me because I had a plan already set up for when I got to high school. High school came around and my freshman year was horrible for me. One I didnt have any friends so I would hang out with my sister. Two I hated the whole school. I didnt want to be part of a school where I didnt have any friends. Most of my friends attended South El Monte or El Monte high school. My GPA for my freshman year was .5. That was my lowest GPA ever. My mom was really disappointed in me. My sophomore year I joined track and got myself back together. I still wasnt getting a 4.0 but I was improving. I had made friends and was able to see friends more often because of track. My GPA for my first semester was 1.8 which made me ineligible for most of my track season. My second semester my coach talked to me and motivated me to get a 2.6. My junior year I joined wrestling, which taught me discipline. I would practice from 2 to 7 or later depending on our routine. It taught me that when you feel like giving up you have to push and push and then you will feel what success feels like. My first semester I wanted to wrestle because my whole family was happy that I got into a sport and I was dedicating myself to it. I was in soccer for about 10 years and practiced daily but stuff in the family caused me to stop. I wish I would have kept playing I know I would have made it pro. I have records in AYSO for most goals scored in a season which was 98. My dreams were never really in playing soccer but it did keep me focus on schoolwork because I wanted to be smart and good at my sport. My fist semesters GPA was a 3.0 and as you can see I was improving. I would also have the chance in meeting Ms. Wiederholt, she was my sisters math teacher and was helping her out with her financial aid. I would talk to her

Zermeno 5

once in a while and then I got real close to her. She started helping me out with school and telling me that I will go to college and she will make sure of that. My second Semester dropped to a 2.6. Wrestling was taking too much of my time. I also had a punk band at the time so I had little time to do work. I would later leave my band to focus on school. My senior year I also stopped wrestling to focus on my schoolwork and try to get into a good college. As a senior my classes were somewhat difficult but manageable. I kept in touch with Ms. Wiederholt and she talked to me about colleges and where I wanted to go. She started helping me out by giving me information about scholarships and events going on in the community that had to do with Engineering. I had the privilege or going to the Adelante Young Men meeting at PCC. I attended on a Saturday which sucked but it was worth it. I went out of my comfort zone to attend this meeting and ended up gaining so much information. I attended a speech that an Engineer was giving on his life. He talked about living in Fernando Valley with 10 people living in his house. He was really poor and showed us pictures of his house and his family. He worked hard in school and got accepted to MIT. He was the son of a Janitor and going to MIT. When I was hearing this I was thinking to myself wow if someone who started out with nothing was able to go a good school and get an education then so can I. He would later talk about him graduating from MIT. One thing that got to me and made me cry was when he said that when he graduated from MIT that was the first time he heard his father say he was proud of him. This really got to me because I to that point had never heard those words from my father. After this meeting I had a goal and that was to graduate and go to college and become a role model. I had extra time to hang out with friends and family. I didnt have to worry of cutting weight and going to tournaments on Saturdays. Everything felt good. My senior first semester I got a 2.4 which for me was pretty good but still not my full effort. My second semester I started slacking off and got a 2.2. I failed one class my math class

Zermeno 6

because I thought I didnt need it anymore. This was the worst thing I did. I remember going to the gym to get my paper signed letting me graduate and my counselor looking at it and saying youre not graduating. I was really mad because she told me she knew I was not going to graduate but never called me in her office to let me know earlier. I had bought all my stuff and now this lady was telling me I couldnt graduate. She had all my credits messed up and had me wait to see if I was going to graduate. I wanted to slap her but I was also mad at myself for not passing my class. Later that day I would find out that I got rejected to all the schools I applied to. I was really disappointed in myself. Not only did I let myself down but I let my family down even worse I let my little sister down. I was trying to be a role model for her, a father figure, someone she can look up to. After letting her know that I wasnt going to graduate I fell to my knees and started to cry. I had never felt so bad in my life. Ms. Wiederholt heard that I wasnt going to graduate and she told me to go to the Principals office and explain my situation. . I talked to the counselor about me not graduating and she got mad because she thought I was accusing her of not letting me graduate when I had just asked her why she didnt talk to me earlier when she supposedly knew I wasnt going to graduate. I later talked to the vice principal and the principal and was allowed to graduate. My math teacher gave me another chance because of my attitude. I never thought my attitude would play a role in me graduating. On My graduation night I was really happy. I didnt get all teary like most kids do when they see their mom or other family members. I got teary when I saw my dad in the stands watching me graduate. I dont really see my dad so for me this was a big deal. When I got my diploma and went to see my family I gave my mom and my family members hugs. Later on my dad would come up to me and give me a hug and he said to me Im proud of you when I heard these 4 words I just broke down in tears. I never thought I would hear these words from my dad. The next week I would receive a letter from Cal State LA saying that I

Zermeno 7

got accepted and I had to redo all my paperwork and financial aid stuff. I had already made up my mind about going to PCC for my first 2 years. I joined the pathways program which guaranteed me classes for my first year. When I graduated it was an awesome feeling but it was nothing big because I still have college graduation ahead of me. In college I feel pretty good right now even though Im behind in some classes. I have been trying to catch up. I recently read the book The Pact in two days which is a first in my life. This is my educational background, from being an A student, to almost not graduating, to being a college student. I hope to accomplish a lot more and use my setbacks as motivations to keep on moving forward. I hope I can be a role model to kids one day. I try to be a role model to my little sister by staying in school and doing what I need to do to succeed. Angela Lee Duckworth says Grit is sticking with your future. This is why I am here today writing this essay, I am sticking with my future of becoming an Engineer. I want to show that if you focus, try hard, and are determined you will succeed.

Zermeno 8

Works Cited "Angela Lee Duckworth: The Key to Success? Grit." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. N.p., May 2013. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. Davis, Sampson, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt. The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream. New York: Riverhead, 2002. Print. The Freedom Writers Diary. New York: Broadway, 2007. Print. "Never, Ever Give Up. Arthur's Inspirational Transformation!" YouTube. YouTube, 30 Apr. 2012. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. "Program Information." - Gifted & Talented Education (CA Dept of Education). N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.