Grade: 12 School: Soledad High School District: Soledad Unified School District ACSA region: 10 Jocelyn Mexicano has come a long way in a short amount of time. Once a self-described “rebel,” Jocelyn struggled with substance abuse as a result of being away from her mother in Mexico. With failing grades, she was in jeopardy of not graduating from high school. But thanks to the support of her counselors, Jocelyn signed up for programs that changed her life. She’s now been clean for three years and is a proud graduate of Soledad High.

Can you share a little bit about your story? It’s really hard for me to talk about this stuff. I lost my parents at a very young age. And I was moving around a lot. My little sister and I went from my mom’s to my grandma’s, like every other year. And we were trying to spend as much time with my mom as possible. But it got to the point where things got too hard. And I had to move back to the states and live over here with my grandparents. But when I came back over here, I started acting out and I kind of became like a rebel.

Why do you think you became a rebel? I kind of started disrespecting my grandparents a lot. And I would go out without telling them, or I would tell them I would go to a place and then not be there and go somewhere else. I started hanging out with the wrong people. And that eventually caught up to me. So that’s some of the reasons why I got put on probation.

What role did your school community play in your development and success? My counselors really helped me a lot. They helped me get into programs that would benefit me and helped me. My sophomore year, I joined this group called Xinachlti. It was a group just for girls. It helped me express more about myself and learn how to love myself more. And I was also in this group from Sun Street Center. I got clean, and I’ve been clean for three years. And yeah, that’s really helped me a lot. And especially because I had the support of my counselors, my teachers and stuff.