About Me
Hi! My name is Joshelyn Vivas (h is silent). I am 21 years old and I’m considered to be an upper sophomore student. Let me tell you a bit about myself, since I have to do it anyways. I am Peruvian American; My mom is Peruvian and my dad is Peruvian American with a splash of Puerto Ricans due to his mother being Puerto Rican. I am currently work as a security officer in a small building in Manhattan on the weekends. I am the first Vivas family member to even attend college in America.
Before I got accepted to York College, I attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn, NY. I was born and raised in Brooklyn for 17 years. I was pretty nervous on my first day as a freshman there, but on my third day, I made friends. In sophomore year, I was concentrated more on my classes and I was thinking of majoring in Mathematics and Engineering. I decided to major in Mathematics, but not engineering because it involved a lot of sciences, and I hate science.
In the summer of 2005, my sisters, father, uncle, aunt and I survived an airplane crash in Peru during the week of Hurricane Katrina. I know, how is this possible? My family and I visited Lima, Peru to see our extended family, since we haven’t seen them in 5 years. During the time in Peru, the family was planning for my quincenera (sweet 15), because I decided to do so; it was either sweet 15 in Peru or sweet 16 in NY.
Before the big day, my dad and his brother with his wife and my sisters and I were going to an airplane to visit another side of town, where my grandfather lives. As the pilot tried to make a landing, it got into a wind storm, which caused the plane to crash near the jungles of the town. I can still remember people running up bleeding to higher grounds. At first, I was looking for my family and they were right behind me. My uncle rushed back to save a baby that lost his mother later on. Just as we came to a good stop, rain and hail came down. Luckily, villagers from the town saw us and took us immediately to the hospital.
I was with my little sister and my aunt, waiting to see if our family in town would pick us up. Later at night, they picked us up and we got reunited with our family members as well as grandfather and his family. Before we were arriving, my step grandmother was making a surprise party for me. Well I got the surprise alright. As we went to my grandfather’s home, many people stared and couldn’t believe what happened. As we arrive a day before the party in Lima, many news reporters and family members were happy to see us. Some of the news people even came to my party. When we came back to my home city, Daily News had us on the front page when I returned to school. See it for yourself : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9071653/ns/world_news-americas/t/let-us-pray-peru-survivors-tell-harrowing-tale/#.T0RetvWUIRc
Where I see myself in ten years is to be a math teacher at John Dewey and receiving my Masters in Education in Mathematics. I was starting to regret it since the school might be closing down and I don’t know if I was ready for high school students. I can already imagine myself with high school boys that are taller than I and girls giving weird look and attitude to me. I wasn’t sure if I can handle that much pressure. I only want to teach equations and problems, but what do I do if I get punched in the face or attacked or just humiliated in general? I want to help my future students, but I was afraid of the possibility that they might not understand me and fight against me. Then I thought to myself “The purpose of be a teacher is to help the students succeed in their goal.” So why should I be nervous if my goal is to become a teacher?
I am willing to help the students with their math problems and help the school with events. I will be moving out of my family’s house and move to Manhattan or Brooklyn, whichever is cheaper. I will also see myself traveling to places that I always wanted to go to such as Paris, Germany, Japan, China, Korea etc. I will continue college to receive a bachelors and masters degree in Education and Mathematics to become a Math teacher. In order to do that, I need to continue my education for about 3-5 years. Also, I will need to learn how to drive and learn other languages so I can accommodate parents who have a language barrier. I am shy at first, but later on, my shyness goes away and I help as much as I can.
