While it didn't mention her ambition to be a social worker, it did detail her goal to be a hero - to family, those that need a cure, kids that are bullied, the disabled, and others who struggle with life's challenges.
"I went up to my room and I just started to write and it came out - what I wanted to do and how I felt," the younger Gina Cocce said. "It really just came from my heart."
The contest that inspired Gina to write down those thoughts was the Connecticut Higher Education Trust's CHET Dream Big Competition. CHET is the state's 529 college savings plan. The category for sixth graders was poetry with the them "After College I Will....."
Cocce's verse was selected from nearly 90 poems submitted from Hartford county, said Amy Naeser, public relations account executive for Adams & Knight, Inc.
In fact, Hartford County represented the toughest competition, representing nearly half of the total 1,800 entries across the state for the categories, which also included drawings from those in grades k to three and essays from fourth and fifth graders.
Cocce celebrated a birthday since she wrote the poem at age 11.
The poet not only aspires to help people in a myriad of ways but has already started on one initiative - "I will walk for every ill."
On May 9, Cocce participated in her second CT Race in the Park, a fundraiser for breast cancer as part of Anna's Angels, named in honor of family friend Anna Barrett who passed two years ago from breast cancer.
"She was close to me," Cocce said.
Coccee also feels that too many people go without the help they need at all levels of society,
"Not a lot of people get help in our world and I just want to support people and make people feel better," she said.
Her mother, also Gina Cocce, said her daughter did disappear to her room the day she brought home information about the contest.
"We never heard much about it until she gave it to us to read," her mother said.
When her family finally read it, they were shocked. Her mother said while teachers read it over for punctuation and spelling, the words were entirely her daughters.
"It's unbelievable," her mother said, "It really came from her heart."
Cocce said she heard about the contest from sixth-grade teacher Kathy Carle.
She also said she wanted to thank fifth-grade teacher Rhodora Agana and Reading teacher Maryellen Noonan.
Those two teachers said they were thrilled Cocce won and wrote this about her:
"Gina Cocce is an exceptional student. She entered the CHET Big Dream writing contest determined to be a winner. Gina wrote her poem, asked for feedback, and continued through self-directed revisions of her work. In a strong voice, Gina's poem tells the story of who she is as a young person, and also speaks to the promise of whom she will become as an adult. Gina is a standout. She will go into the world and make the contributions she writes about. We are very proud of her, and we wish her the best of luck."