Marlene Medina, BASW Class of 2019 - Recipient of the Award for Excellence in Community Service

IMAGE:  (L-R) Marlene Medina &  Liz Deck from Youth Educational Services

Marlene Medina, BASW Class of 2019 - Recipient of the Award for Excellence in Community Service

In the words of nominator, Liz Deck:

Marlene came to Youth Educational Services (Y.E.S.) in spring of 2015 with a strong desire to volunteer and give back in the local community.  She ended up volunteering with two of our programs. The first was Golden Years, a Y.E.S. program that, at the time, went out to local senior citizens homes and helped with household chores and provided companionship.  The second program was Homelessness Network, a Y.E.S. program that facilitates activities for youth experiencing homelessness and provides positive role modeling.

Marlene has taken on many roles over her years at Y.E.S. - volunteer, director of Golden Years, Governing Body member, Program Consultant and Student Assistant as well as a volunteer cook at our three-day training retreat which required her to return a week early from Winter break!

By virtue of holding all of these roles, Marlene has made a significant contribution to individual senior citizens and homeless youth in our local community as well as being a mentor and leader to our student volunteers (as well as giving them the best hugs on the planet when they need it most!).