The topic was inequality, and the CSUB political science professor placed a piece of chocolate in front of the class.
“Whoever wants this chocolate can come right down and grab it,” she said.
Denisse Silva immediately understood her professor’s point: The students in the front of the class had an advantage over those in the back. Just as in everyday life there are the advantaged and the disadvantaged.
In that moment, Silva knew she wanted to help level the playing field.
At first she thought that might be as a social justice lawyer. But through some self-exploration that took her around the globe, Silva decided to become a therapist and is working on her master’s degree in counseling psychology at CSUB.
What kind of therapist she’s still working out, but she’s discovered the power of physical activity and deep breathing to discover feelings and clear the mind of anxiety and pain. What kind of physical activity?
Yoga and scuba diving. Even in Bakersfield.
GOING CRAZY IN HIGH SCHOOL
Silva knows a lot about being disadvantaged.
Her father was deported to Mexico when she was young, so she didn’t have much of a relationship with him until age 20. Her mother worked the night shift at Grimmway Farms, and so wasn’t around much for her and her three siblings. Silva’s teachers were her parental figures.
Not until high school did she get a chance to participate in after-school activities. And so she went “crazy” then and joined everything: Soccer, cross-country, track, Spanish Club, French Club, the “We the People” team and, particularly formidably, wrestling.
She was one of two girls who wrestled at Golden Valley High School, and won matches against boys.
“Wrestling is a very mental sport because you have to dedicate yourself to eating correctly, and at that age you don’t care about those things,” Silva said. “It taught me self-discipline, self-control. It taught me so many things about myself.”