Appreciation

When I was a freshmen in high school, I didn’t know anything. I didn’t what to do with

my life and the requirements that I needed to graduate high school. However, I met Patricia

Zarco in my freshmen year. Personally, she like us to call her “Patty” as her nickname. Patty is

the one who influenced and motivated me a lot with college and my future life goals. If I had

never known Patty, I wouldn’t know what to do in the rest of my three years in high school.

Patty is encouraging, helpful, enthusiastic, optimistic, passionate, generous, and most of all;

Patty is really, really nice. Patty did a lot not just for me but, for all students as well. Patty held

summer programs at UC Merced for students to learn more about the future life of college. The

summer program that she had held last year was excellent and great because I learned a lot. She

provided informations about UC/CSU Application deadlines, going over the UC/CSU

Applications, Financial aids, practice for SAT tests, speakers from different programs from UC

Merced, and more. The information was very helpful because most of the first generation student

like me didn’t know what to do for the UC/CSU Applications and for the upcoming senior year.

Without Patty, I didn’t know what to do with submitting my financial aid and how to apply to

colleges. From today, I noticed that Patty was the person who influenced me and helped me the

most to go to college. From Patty’s help, I successfully applied to UC’s and CSU’s before the

submission date. From Patty, I successfully got accepted into CSU Stanislaus, UC Merced, CSU

East bay, CSU Sacramento, and CSU Fresno Pacific. Without Patty’s help, I wouldn’t know that

financial aid could help me go to college. Without Patty’s help, I wouldn’t be able to finish my

financial aid application and submitting it on time. I really, really have to thank Patty for

everything she did to help us for our future. When I am old and refer back to my high school
memory, the first person that I will remember that helped me the most is Patricia Zarco. I

appreciated all her help and inspiration that she provided for me in high school. Patty, I thank

you for everything you did. It is my pleasure to be one of the members of Gateway Scholars.