Personal Statement

What have you done to make your school or community a better place?

Over the years, I have taken the pleasure at working with Merced Skimmers to help teach and
give lessons to kids who don´t know how to swim. I have helped and taught countless children
and even young teenagers how to swim. It can get very stressful sometimes and there may
even be days where I don´t want to spend energy to console a 4 year old who is scared of the
water. However, afterwards I get to think and appreciate the kind of job I have where I could
have prevented someone from losing their life or at least treated them to be able to have fun
swimming in a river or lake. At first, I joined because the program needed help getting more
coaches to come and give lessons as there was too much going on for the short staff. Since
then, I have never regretted the decision of joining. I get to work with lots of other coaches to
create a fun and safe environment for our swimmers. Apart from working as a lessons instructor,
I also have community involvement as a junior lifeguard in Hilmar. I would help out cleaning the
pool deck and bathrooms, as well as help watch the kids over a community pool along with a
head lifeguard. We would have regular training and drills in case there was an accident and I
needed to assist the lifeguard. I have received lessons on how to give CPR in extreme
emergencies and I take the safety of the community very seriously as well as pride in the jobs I
have for my community.

Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to
overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievements

As an athlete, like many others, the most significant challenge we have to face is knowing when
to keep going and to push ourselves and when to back off. This has affected my academic
achievements because it helped make me an efficient worker and student, but also to keep
myself controlled and calm so I don´t spiral out in stress while I drown in my own work. I have
learned that being a student-athlete means assignments and school work are just as important,
if not more important than practice and competition. I have learned patience, pain, dedication,
and hard work, which all coincide with being a successful worker. I have had many times when I
have been on the brink of quitting and giving up and at one point I did. After that incident, it took
a lot of dedication, support from others, time, discipline, and hard work to get to where I am at
today. It is the struggle in failure that has brought my success. It is the pain that reveals
perseverance and peace. It is success that brings you to your future. After having all of these
challenges and obstacles, I have grown more confident in myself and really get to think of my
future that is filled with opportunities that I could have never imagined. My relationships with my
friends and family have grown as I feel I have matured through these times. I have much more
experience in real world situations and It expands the type of person I am to others. I have
made new friends as well through these experiences and I have gone through struggles with
others where we can console each other and not have to be alone. Some specific instances of a
challenge was when I was supposed to race for swimming and I didn't get the times I wanted. I
was frustrated and upset and that's when my coach told me the importance of learning from our
mistakes and failures and he taught me a lot about patience.

What would say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and
demonstrated that talent over time?

My greatest skill or talent is being able to cooperate and work with others. I am a very
collaborative and imaginative person so working with others on projects and running into errors
is where I like to come in to help. I am not the best at working with my hands as I can be clumsy
and I can't follow directions very well, however, I can come up with possible solutions and
brainstorm well with others. For example, last year, we had to make a roller coaster for a marble
and that's all we were given. We had to come up with materials, designs, and calculate the
potential energy as well as the average kinetic energy of the marble through this system. I was
able to work very closely with my teammates and lead the projects design and material lists
while the other led the construction of the system. This talent has always been a natural in my
personality as I love working with others and feeling like I'm helping contribute to something
important. It makes me feel good to look at something i´ve helped create and feel proud of
myself and my teammates. Hardly anything is really done alone and almost always has
something to do with a team or crew and I want to be a part of that team. I believe this helps me
be a better student because it means I would enjoy helping others or even to reach out to other
students or teachers. Of course, I wish I could be better at working with others as I have flaws,
but I am working towards improving those weaknesses so they are no longer weaknesses

Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively

influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time

With a great opportunity I have received from Ryan Randall as a head coach of merced
skimmers, I have had the opportunity to not only teach lessons to kids who don´t know how to
swim but I also work as a coach with the kids that do swim and are officially a part of the merced
skimmers team. I have been helping these kids who are ages 9-11 to become faster swimmers
and learn the importance of what being a student-athlete means. I have led these kids to know
hard work, self-discipline, cooperation and collaboration. I help guide them through being a
team and working together. I think these kids look up to me and sometimes I look up to these
kids as I see myself in most of them. They are the future leaders and athletes of the program.
I´m willing to bet they will be better than I will ever be. I have a big responsibility to be there for
these kids as much as possible. I have been there to cheer for them when they have big races
and I only wish for them to be the best selves they can be. This experience has changed the
way I lead by teaching me not to force them to do things my way, but to always improvise and
realize I'm wrong sometimes. I have to lead these kids by example to guide them and give them
lessons on not just the sport but teach them to correlate it with life. Sometimes, I get kids that
aren't well behaved and don´t want to listen to me. In cases like that, I like to stay patient and
see what works best in teaching those kids. They are always good kids and wouldn't hurt
anyone but they may struggle with things others don't struggle with.