Photo courtesy of Boys & Girls Club West San Gabriel Valley
Helping kids see the world in a new light
At a recent Maytag Dependable Leader Award event, Yesenia Diaz was honored at celebrations held at the San Gabriel Country Club and the Boys & Girls Club West San Gabriel Valley in California.
Yesenia is a former club member whose first job was working the front desk at her Club. She worked her way up to small groups coordinator, Program Director, VP of Programs and Impact, and most recently, Chief Operating Officer.
What is most rewarding to Yesenia about working at the Club is the ability to impact youth. She relates because she has been in their situation and she shows them how they can make positive changes in their lives. The Club showed Yesenia a different world and she treasures passing that on to the members she serves. “When you join the Club,” says Yesenia, “you see the world in a new light and providing that to kids is the best part of what I do.”
Read more of Yesenia’s story:
MDLA winner from BGC West Gabriel Valley
When Yesenia was a junior in high school, she found the Club through an outreach event at her high school. Coming to the Club was not only an adventure in firsts—first time in a restaurant, first field trip, first job, first in her family to graduate high school and attend college—but also, it was an event that would forever change her life.
Yesenia’s parents came to the US from Mexico with only a 6th grade education. Her father was a field worker and her mother tended to nurseries and green houses. Her hardworking parents raised Yesenia and her two sisters in a trailer park in Rosemead and for most of her life, that was all Yesenia knew.
Once she found the Club, Yesenia saw a different world from the gang-infested trailer park she knew as home. The junior who could barely structure a written sentence, became motivated to work hard and was able to graduate high school and attend college where she graduated with a bachelor degree in human services management. During her two years as a Club member, Yesenia will tell you she learned more than she did throughout all of high school.
The Club gave Yesenia her first job working the front desk. Yesenia quickly worked her way up to small groups coordinator. It was Yesenia’s vision that overhauled the Club’s education programming when she started the Education Department and brought in programs like Project Learn, Power Hour, Study Island, and eventually College Bound. After moving through Program Director and VP of Programs and Impact, Yesenia was recently promoted to COO.
Yesenia paved the path for her two younger sisters who also joined the Club, went to college and joined the Movement. Her leadership has permeated the Club—staff and kids alike look up to Yesenia. When the opportunity arose to expand services to a neighboring housing project, Yesenia was the first to jump on board. She has trained and lead the staff to replicate programs as we’ve expanded and she has a “pay-it-forward” mentality. She is humble and caring and she puts in the extra effort because it is what is right and truly a part of who she is.
Jessica was a club member who had a volatile home life and a verbally abusive mother. Through her teen years, Yesenia was there for her, always a phone call away. She made transportation arrangements for Jessica to get to the Club, helped her with her college applications and helped to take her to her college interviews and appointments. Yesenia held Jessica’s hand through all of it, acting like a big sister, and today, Jessica is working and going to college. This is one example of many how Yesenia has gone above and beyond to help the kids at the Club.
What is most rewarding to Yesenia about working at the Club is the ability to impact youth. She relates because she has been in their situation and she shows them how they can make positive changes in their lives. The Club showed Yesenia a different world and she treasures passing that on to the members she serves. “When you join the Club,” says Yesenia, “you see the world in a new light and providing that to kids is the best part of what I do.”
Source: Boys & Girls Clubs of America