Leslie Yanez – Fall 2020 Award Recipient

Our next Get Involved Award recipient is Leslie Yanez, a junior at Sonoma Valley High School. For her service learning journey, she was a census ambassador lead with an organization called La Luz that aims to strengthen the community through family services, economic advancement, and community engagement.

In the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, she helped spread information regarding the census to the Spanish speaking community in Sonoma. In addition, she helped clear up the confusion regarding the census and the false rumors that have prevented individuals in the past from filling it out. In fact, Leslie went door to door to introduce herself, explain the importance of filling out the census as well as the procedures to do so.

For these months, Leslie was able to create connections and bonds with the people in her community and became a valuable helping hand to individuals in the Spanish speaking community due to her ability to speak both Spanish and English. In addition, she was able to gain vital qualities such as eye contact and public speaking, and grew personally by becoming more mature and broadening her perspective of the community.

Due to this experience helping others, Leslie discovered that in the future, she wants to go into a career where she can advocate for others and herself. So, not only did Leslie’s work benefit her community, she was also able to gain valuable personal skills and realize her goals for the future. View her project interview video here.