In 1994 I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to my parents Jose, and Joyce Ygarza. I only lived in Hawaii for one year, but I would go on to live in a few other states as well. My family moved to Washington State, but only lived there until I was three, after that it was to New Jersey until I was five, and finally to Edgewood, Maryland (located right outside of Baltimore). That is where most of my childhood memories began.
As I grew up in Edgewood I started practicing hobbies that would soon turn into passions. One of my passions was playing basketball. I started playing on the local boys and girls recreational team, and for Edgewood’s summer AAU team. Besides playing basketball, I realized I also loved to sing, and noted it to be an innate talent. Given the opportunity to sing for church, I came to really enjoy it and started singing every Sunday. Some other hobbies I enjoyed were swimming, writing, and attending the Boys and Girls Club. Then, after my parents retired from the Army,they felt that living on the outskirts of Baltimore wasn’t the best place to raise a family; so we moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Moving to Pa. was a sad thing for me because I made many close friends in Edgewood, but being a very outgoing and friendly person, it wasn’t hard for me to make more friends in Lancaster. Still being in elementary school, I continued playing basketball for a rec team, and played for an AAU team called Blue Mountain; my sister and I would grow up to become notable players of the Penn Manor Girl's Basketball program. My family regularly attended church, and after I sang for one its open mic nights, my opportunities for singing broadened. My church asked me to sing once a day for vacation bible school, during church services, and recommended me to Thaddeus Stevens to sing for the class reunion. Throughout middle school I took vocal lessons, and I also tried playing field hockey, which I turned out to be very good at. However as high school approached I focused on basketball only; but putting more effort into my singing was also a must. How could I do that?
The summer of 2008 my freshmen year, I recorded six original songs; then went on to perform a few of them at an event called First Friday. As more people began to know who I was, I thought making up an artist name was a great idea; so I called myself, Arené. A combination of both my first and middle name, "A" standing for Alicia, and René being my middle name.Throughout high school I participated in my school’s musical, its mannual talent show, sang the national anthem at sporting events, and participated in local talent shows. I later created a Facebook artist page Arené and Youtube Channel, where you can go to watch some of my talent show performances, and listen to a few song covers. Going on to play varsity basketball for four years, and be recruited to play in college was a huge accomplishment for me. After my sister graduated in 2010, I enjoyed stepping up and filling the leadership role as captain on my team. That was not the only way I built my leadership skills. Being vice president for my school’s student government was another great accomplishment, so as you can see high school helped me build the strong characteristics of teamwork and leadership I would need for college.
Now attending Eastern Mennonite University, I hope to not only do well in school, but would like to give back to EMU by being a respectable hardworking student athlete, singing for school events, writing for the Weather Vane, and becoming a member of SGA.