“As a freshman in high school, I was clearly on the wrong path. I was naïve to the new world that surrounded me, but thankfully, Girls Inc. motivated me to believe that I was capable of so much more.”
Yesenia Duran joined Girls Inc. in 2007, she participated in the ECHO Leadership program, during her freshman year. Yesenia credits her personal growth to her participation in ECHO and having the opportunity to return as a Youth Leader. After also getting involved in her community through Building Healthy Communities, a project under the California Endowment with the purpose of improving the East Salinas by addressing violence in the community, she now sees issues at a broader level. She is now a more independent, organized, responsible, and mature teen.
Yesenia is currently a sophomore attending CSU Bakersfield.