CHICO — Arya Pocock hears it a lot. Seated on the rooftop patio of Stoble, occasionally sipping an iced decaf while talking about her journey to receiving one of the top honors a Boys and Girls Club member can get, she flashed a familiar smile when a guest observed, “You seem more like an adult than a Youth of the Year.”
A 17-year-old high school junior, Arya displays poise beyond her age. Earlier in the week, she spoke to a room of around 150 business and community leaders in Chico — and earned a standing ovation. She eased through a speech she’s honed since the fall, when she began the stages of competition that brought her to that stage.
In October, she became Youth of the Year for the Chico club, where she and several of her siblings belong, in every sense of the word. Next came North Valley Youth of the Year, in December; then Nor Cal Youth of the Year in March in Santa Clara. Last month in Sacramento, she won California Youth of the Year, securing a spot in the Pacific Region competition May 28-30 in Beverly Hills. The winner there will vie with five others to become the organization’s national teen spokesperson.
Arya is the first state Youth of the Year from our area. Rashell Brobst, executive director of Boys and Girls Clubs of the North Valley, calls her “a beacon for Boys and Girls Club youth nationwide, embodying our mission and showcasing the transformative impact of our clubs.
“We are incredibly proud of Arya and the remarkable hurdles she’s overcome to achieve this well-deserved title,” Brobst continued. “Our team has played a crucial role in supporting her journey, ensuring she has the resources she needs to thrive. Arya’s resilience and determination shine through her accomplishments.
“As she moves forward, we have no doubt she will soar even higher, continuing to carve out an extraordinary path towards a great future.”
Rough road
Juleah Cordi also uses the word “resilience” when talking about Arya. Cordi has spent countless hours with her as a volunteer coach helping Arya refine her public speaking and interview skills. As district director for Assemblyman James Gallagher, Cordi has plenty of experience in both regards.
“This is as far as we’ve ever had a kiddo get in the competition,” Cordi said, next to Arya at the coffeehouse, “and I’m impressed at how much potential and drive and passion Arya has. She’s above and beyond any of the other youth I’ve worked with over the years.”
The two have such a strong rapport that a half-hour later, posing for a photo in the courtyard of the Chico club’s Teen Center, they looked at each other with the same wide-eyed expression — serendipity that caused both to erupt with laughter.
Life hasn’t been all smiles for Arya, though. Her speech details hardships in childhood that continued into her early high school years. Arya grew up in Fresno with her biological mother and three brothers — including one who died at just two months old, when she was 6 or 7. Child protection officers put the kids in foster care when another of her brothers suffered more than a dozen broken bones in a suspicious incident.
That’s when Arya connected with her biological father for the first time. After a custody battle with her grandparents, her father brought her to Chico, where she met four brothers “I didn’t know existed.” The expanded family of nine, including her adoptive mother and two cousins she considers “technical sisters,” moved from a three-bedroom trailer to a home in Cohasset.
She was a fifth-grader at the time. Freshman year at Inspire School for Arts and Sciences, she enrolled at the Boys and Girls Club. She didn’t think much of the place initially, subscribing to a stereotype that “it’s just daycare for older kids who have nothing better to do with their lives” — but soon found it offered a whole lot more.
“I’m very happy my view has changed,” Arya said.
She tapped into the support system while reeling from family tragedies. Having shown no signs of emotional success, her father committed suicide. Eight months later, Arya lost an uncle to suicide as well. “We were almost on our feet,” she recalled, “and we fell back again.”
Arya kept her feelings wrapped tight but gradually started opening up at the Boys and Girls Club, where “responsible adults” helped her find her footing.
“I decided that I couldn’t let all these traumatic events that happened to me hold me back,” she said. “I’d been letting it do so for 15 years of my life, and I couldn’t let it do that to me anymore.”
Finding her voice
Grateful to her father for various things, Arya draws on an inherited gift — acting — at school and in the competition. She’s grown comfortable expressing herself in front of people. She dances and sings in the choir at Inspire. Both in school and the Boys and Girls Club, Arya has emerged as a leader.
Becky Brown, Inspire’s principal/superintendent, observed how Arya responded to the heart-wrenching losses.
“I was just astounded to see her continuing to excel in her classes, continuing to make connections with good friends here at school, get her work done and stay the course,” Brown said. “I think what’s central to her is she’s incredibly resilient, she’s determined, and she keeps moving forward because she focuses on her goals and doesn’t let anything stop her from attaining them.”
Arya already has a plan mapped out. She has her eye on Sonoma State, though she’ll visit several colleges in Southern California when she’s there for regionals. (Because the competition overlaps with the last week of school, Inspire is letting her take her finals early.) She wants to major in journalism and sociology with the aim of telling young people’s stories, particularly those of foster youth, on a website she’ll develop.
That goal blossomed during a Keystone Conference the Boys and Girls Club organization held in Dallas last summer for aspiring leaders. Arya met previous Youth of the Year honorees who’ve used their platform for advocacy, as she now does to raise awareness on mental health.
Leading up to the Pacific Region competition, she’s increased the frequency of meeting with Cordi from weekly to practically daily. Arya also has the Youth of the Year equivalent of a chief of staff in Emylee Krupa, site director of the Chico Teen Center.
In many ways, she’s like an adult … while still a kid.
“Talking about my story, my dad’s story, my uncle’s story is taxing,” Arya said. “It does hurt a lot to talk about it — and while it doesn’t show a lot of times, it’s because I’ve been able to talk to responsible adults like Juleah and Emylee, and feel safe when I talk to them.
“A lot of youth are told they can’t cry because it’s a a sign of weakness and we’re not allowed to show that in public, which is something I was taught. It took Emylee and Juleah for me to realize it’s not a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength, because I have courage enough to show these emotions in front of a huge crowd of people.”