Our life cycle prepares us to lose our grandparents or our parents at an older age but the life cycle does not prepare us for the loss of a sibling. this is how I lost and regained my faith. My faith in God has helped me overcome many obstacles that I constantly struggle with but have been able to get through. My family and I are Catholics and are firm believers in prayer and faith. At 4 years old I was diagnosed with Bacterial Meningitis a bacteria that would have killed me within 24 hours. My case was the first case known in our county. After being rushed to the hospital and being diagnosed the Dr. told my mom my diagnosis we were all petrified about my survival rate but with prayer and faith I survived after 21 days of treatment this was only the beginning of how faith would doubt our faith and how it will become stronger. 5 years ago I lost my baby brother to SIDS at that moment I questioned God why he would take my baby brother. This destroyed me, I didn't understand how this could happen and why God would allow it. I was quite angry with God and had lost my faith and even questioned my living, how could God take something from me because he knew my first baby brother made me happy and brought our family so much joy? I felt lost and confused I had given up. Until the day I heard my mom beg God to give her back half of what he took and a month later my mom was pregnant again and it was going to be a boy. After hearing this news I realized God took my brother and made him and Angel to guide me and this made me have faith once again and change my outlook in life look forward life again. My mother is the strongest person I know. A single mother raising 3 children, she has to put her dreams on hold because she became pregnant with me. She is hardworking motivated and will do anything for her children. I will never forget the moment my mom lost her children because she lost 2 and had to get up every morning knowing that she was in grief and push herself for us. She is everything I aspire to be. I know I am supposed to write more about myself than my mother but my mother has played a big role in regaining my faith. I could not have any of my accomplishments and goals without my mother she helped me realize that I had an Angel watching over me. This situation made me feel resilient believing anything was possible through prayer and faith. I was shy and had issues with public speaking, I challenged myself to become trilingual (English, Spanish, and French) I entered a local scholarship Pageant, earning a scholarship for self-expression and stage presence and getting appointed by my Delano Chamber of Commerce to represent my hometown as Miss Delano 2023 and now serving as Miss Golden Empire 2024. My goal as Miss. Golden Empire encourages our younger generation of women and men to push themselves to reach their goals and that no dream is too big or too small, I never thought that the woman I was becoming could have been me. Now I know that with God and the help of my mother, I have a purpose here in life, to live for myself and anyone else I can help, pursue my dreams, and help others pursue theirs.

Success doesn't have to be defined by how much money you make or how many things you own. One thing my mother has always told me is that success is defined by many forms as minimal as accomplishing small goals. Her wish for me was for me to do more than she was able to do. My mother was a single mother raising three children only being able to finish her A.S. degree her dreams were cut short due to teen pregnancy. My mother has worked very hard to help me achieve my goals and overall be successful in life. Each step through my journey in life it to reach my ultimate goal. I have many people including my father to see me fail, this is just fuel to the fire that I have to continue pursuing my goals. What does this scholarship mean to me? It means everything, every cent I can earn to help my mother pay for my education to help me accomplish my dreams is more than enough. I come from a rural town that most people have never heard of my mother worked very hard and paid for college application fees, dorm fees, and admission fees all on her own. My essay may not be the best, but in my heart I know that help and success comes hand in hand. It would be more of an honor to be able to receive your help and help me achieve success. My dreams were too big for my rural town I had to apply to school away from my home town. My mother had to take out a loan just so I can attend a University. I have overcome many obstacles in trying to reach my goals. I was raised by a single mother,have a family that consists of 1 sister and 3 brothers. Sadly, I lost one of my brothers to SIDS and I have been more vocal and advocating SIDS awareness as well as losing a baby sister at 21 weeks gestation due to Potter Syndrome. At the age of 4 years old, I was diagnosed with Bacterial Meningococcal and survived after a 21-day treatment. I challenged myself to learn to play the piano and guitar as well as became trilingual (English, Spanish, and French). I was shy and had issues with public speaking, I entered a local scholarship Pageant, The Delano Harvest Queen Show earning a scholarship for self-expression and stage presence was appointed by my Delano Chamber of Commerce to represent my hometown as Miss Delano 2023 and currently hold the title of Miss Golden Empire 2024. I hope someday be able to run as Miss California and continue advocating and helping my community and family who are Mexican immigrants and came to the United States to give me more opportunities, they have worked hard and helped me become the woman I am becoming and have no excuse not make the proud with every little financial help that I receive is more than enough help to helping me succeed in my future.

My Name Is Kalyssa Lehanne Cauthron, I am currently serving my community as Miss Golden Empire 2024. I was raised by a single mother. Sadly, I lost one of my brothers to SIDS and I have been more vocal and advocating SIDS awareness as well as losing a baby sister at 21 weeks gestation due to Potter Syndrome. At the age of 4 years old, I was diagnosed with Bacterial Meningococcal and survived after a 21-day treatment. Growing up through my childhood I have been involved in school sports, 8 years in a competitive dance team as well as recreational and school cheer. Sports helped me cope with my grief. I have been in cheer for 6 years currently my first year in track and field. Through cheer and dance, I auditioned and had the opportunity to be part of the USA ALL AMERICAN CHEER TEAM and had the honor to represent my town of Delano and high school in London’s New Year parade this past year in Dec 2023. I have also been involved in helping and cheering in the Special Olympics at my school and teaching outside youth cheer. Through my passions, I have found much appreciation and determination to be more involved with my community. I challenged myself to learn and become trilingual (English, Spanish, and French) and serve as a Treasurer in my high school French Club as well as a member of our Girls Empowered and Motivated Club. I was shy and had issues with public speaking so decided to enter a local scholarship Pageant, The Delano Harvest Queen Show earning a scholarship for self-expression and stage presence and was appointed by my Delano Chamber of Commerce to represent my hometown as Miss Delano 2023. As Miss Golden I strive to represent myself most positively by attending local ribbon cuttings as well as supporting small local business owners at pop-ups. I believe it’s very important to support our local business owners big or small to encourage financial growth in our town. I have also been involved in community service during the holidays helping with several toy drives and adopting a family event. My goal as Miss. Golden Empire is to encourage our younger generation of women to push themselves to reach their goals that no dream is too big or too small. Working with our community to progress and elevate all generations. My goal is to run for Miss. California and pursue higher education in Communications and Performing Visual Theater Arts. I am from a small rural agricultural town where many of my peers feel like their dreams are out of reach or children don't believe that great success is possible. Sports has played a significant role in many ways, I've learned leadership, determination, and perseverance. What I feel makes me stand out from the rest, after traumatic events in my life I was able to push forward every low, rejection, and grief I did my very best to get through it and work hard to accomplish my goals. I take every opportunity possible that will help me in my future career and when in doubt with the support of my family, friends, and community. I'm not only representing myself but also my community and family who are Mexican immigrants and came to the United States to give me more opportunities, they have worked hard to get me to be the woman I am becoming and have no excuse to not make the proud with every little financial help that I receive is more than enough help to helping me succeed in my future.

My name is Kalyssa Cauthron and senior in high school, I currently still face adversity. I am half-Mexican and half White the adversity I face on a daily is not fitting in with my peers. I live in an agricultural rural town where a majority of the student body is Hispanic. I have always had a hard time making friends, I'm either too Mexican for the White or too White for the Mexicans. I would hear girls talk about me in Spanish not knowing I knew how to speak it, I understood every word they said these words would affect me and put me down. I would feel self-conscious, and I became very introverted and shy. My mother being a first-generation Mexican American helped me understand that my background is what makes us strong. I had to feel prideful that I was just as Mexican as they were even if I didn't look like them or their idea of what a Mexican should look like, a very ignorant way of thinking. If you go to Mexico you have a variety of what Mexicans look like. Learning to be more confident about my ethnicity, when people tried to intimidate me and talk about me in Spanish, I would respond to them in Spanish to make them aware that I also spoke Spanish and I understood them. I loved seeing people's faces when they heard me speak in Spanish knowing they judged me by the way I looked. As I got older I became more comfortable now being everyone's cup of tea. I was not always going to have things in common with other people, I was not always going to be liked. I learned to love myself and my ancestry. The best advice I can give is to love yourself who you are and where you come from at the end of the day the people who will love you and support you will be the people who know your true self. They will not judge, degrade, or make you feel inferior just because of your last name, what you look like or what language you speak. It baffles me that we still go through situations. A special quote I like to refer to is "In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” – Maya Angelou. We are all beautiful and unique in our way, there is one world filled with different social, ethnic backgrounds, genders, and sexual orientations we should be accepting of one another because we never know what one is going through being accepting and kind is free.