ESS Region 7: Gysselle Bibiano
September 7, 2020
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ESS Region 7: Gysselle Bibiano.
Editor\u2019s note: ACSA\u2019s video series profiling the winners of the Every Student Succeeding awards program was impacted by COVID-19 shelter-in-place restrictions. Each week, EdCal will feature Q&A interviews with all 19 winners from each ACSA region. In addition, there will be video stories of the students whose footage was completed before the pandemic. Watch for these videos to premiere on ACSA\u2019s
Grade: 12\nSchool: Argonaut High School\nDistrict: Amador County USD \nACSA region: 7\n\nYouTube channel
and ACSA\u2019s Facebook page
this fall.\u00a0\n\nGysselle Bibiano has defied and exceeded expectations since she was born
. The now 18-year-old was pronounced dead at birth. She was resuscitated and intubated for nearly 12 hours. At six months old, doctors told Gysselle\u2019s mother, Vanessa Gutierrez, that Gysselle had cerebral palsy and ataxia and may never walk or talk.\n\nBut Gysselle did both. \u201cShe told me I would walk and talk, and I listened to her,\u201d she said of her mother at an awards ceremony.\n\nAt Argonaut High School in Jackson, Gysselle volunteered in the campus\u2019 special education preschool class. After one of the preschool students died, Gysselle led an effort to raise $9,600 for a memorial playground. She also organized a \u201cmini-prom\u201d for special education students last year who were unable to attend the school\u2019s prom.\n\nShe became the first graduate from the Marilyn Triglia Education Center at Argonaut. Gysselle plans to attend Columbia College in Sonora and become a special education teacher.\n\n\u201cGysselle is the most remarkable story I have ever been a part of,\u201d said Argonaut High School principal Troy Gassaway. \u201cShe has been in the Amador Unified School District for over 12 years and has been supported by ACSA members at Jackson Elementary and Jackson Middle School. It truly took a village to get her where she is today.\u201d\n\nWhat are your hobbies and interests?\nMy favorite subject in school was math because it was the easiest, and I\u2019m actually really good with money. The hardest class was Mr. Duggan\u2019s English class, which was a college prep class. Even though it was hard, I really enjoyed it.\n\nWhen I wasn\u2019t working hard for school, I spent my time taking drama in school and outside of school. I also did track and field and I was part of the Latinx Club. Working for Little Ponies is also an important part of my senior year.\n\nWhat has been the biggest challenge you\u2019ve overcome to get where you are today?\nThe biggest obstacle I\u2019ve had is learning how to accept that not everyone is accepting of me and my disability. I try really hard to be \u201cnormal,\u201d and I\u2019m really good at doing things on my own; it just takes me a little longer.\n\nWhat educator helped you along the way and how did they help you?\nRoseanne is one of the aids at Triglia, and for my four years at Argonaut High School, she pushed me to do my best, she encouraged me to try harder and she motivated me to get to my goal. For that, I will forever be thankful to her.\n\nWhat advice would you have for students facing similar situations?\nMy advice to other students like me is to never give up. If you put your mind to it, you can do it! Winning this award is proof that it doesn\u2019t matter the obstacles given to me throughout my lifetime. If I set a goal and work really hard to accomplish it, I will definitely reach it.\n\nThank you to everyone who believed in me and pushed me throughout the years. I am grateful for having people who also believe in me as strongly as I believe in myself.\u00a0Every Student Succeeding winners overcome the odds
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