Episode #2: Honoree Breakfast Spotlight: Jesenia Wright

In our second episode of Inside the Impact, we celebrate Women’s History Month with a homegrown leader who defines "grit and grace." We sit down with Jesenia Wright, our 2026 Community Voice & Advocacy Impact Award recipient, for an inspiring look at the journey of how her life came to be.

Jesenia shares how her lived experience in the Mohawk Valley fueled her passion for advocacy and led to her clinical leadership at ICAN and the founding of GivingsCloset. The conversation explores what it means to lead with authenticity and the "full-circle" moments that come with pouring back into the community that raised her.

This episode also kicks off our countdown to the 2nd Annual Honoree Breakfast on May 6th, where we will celebrate Jesenia and seven other incredible changemakers. Tune in to hear how this local leader is making a lasting impact and making our region stronger.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to Inside the Impact. I'm your host, Cassandra Garcia, and as we celebrate Women's History Month, we are joined by a powerhouse leader who defines grit and grace. She is a homegrown utican, a mother of three, a licensed master social worker, a doctoral candidate. Today we are sitting down with Jacenia Wright, the Director of School-Based Mental Health at ICANN, and our 2026 recipient of the Community Voice and Advocacy Impact Award. Jessenia oversees a team of over 250 staff, but her impact goes far beyond her title. And from her own lived experience, navigating the Udico school system to founding the Givings Closet, she's proof that your past doesn't define your future. If you use it. Jacenya, I am so honored to have you here. You are someone who wears many hats in this community, but I know those titles only tell part of your story. So please introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Hi, I'm so excited to be here. Um, thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this and also for being being an honoree for this year. I was super excited about that. So how do I how do I introduce myself? My name's Justenia Wright. I'm a mother of three. Um, I'm an advocate. At heart, I'm a social worker. My title, I'm a social worker, but at heart I'm an advocate. I'm also a cycle breaker. I define myself as a cycle breaker. And although I am a mother, sometimes as mothers, we let those titles define us. But before we who were we before we became mothers. So I'm a cycle breaker. I'm a granddaughter of a strong Puerto Rican woman. Um, yeah, and I'm and I'm just so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Wow, it's an honor to meet you. I was stalking your pages, LinkedIn. I was trying to get all the information I can, and it was really fun. So I can't wait to get a little bit more details about everything. But before we dive into those details, what is some important parts about your identity that drive everything you do in your work?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Okay. So I talked a little bit about briefly about being a mother. Being a mother definitely drives the work that I do. Being the granddaughter of a strong Puerto Rican work woman drives the work that I do. So my grandmother raised me and she was my support system, my everything growing up. And so she really taught me so many lessons and tried, well, you know, try to teach me so many lessons when I was young, but it doesn't really apply until you get older. Right. Because you know, you think you know everything. But um, so that definitely drives who I am today. And then I'm sure we'll get into it a little more later, but my childhood experiences drive and define who I am today. And so I like to call myself a cycle breaker because there were a many different experiences that I had as a child and within my family generationally that I that I know and I I truly stand firm on drive the work that I do today and drive who I am today.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Wow. And that's great. And you were born and raised here, right? Yes. And how does it feel to just now work here? Like you said, you're a cycle breaker and you're doing it where you are raised.

unknown 3:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

So how does that feel? It's surreal. Initially, when I went off to go, when it was time to go away for college, I'm like, I'm gonna go away for college and I'm not coming back, right? I'm not coming back. Well, I came back during that college um experience. I ended up having getting pregnant with my son at 19. And so I had to, well, I got pregnant with my 18, and I had to come back home. Um, well, I didn't have to come home back home, but I did come back home and finish college at home. And so I just, I was, I settled here. And then as I settled here, I'm like, there's so much that I want to do here. So I'm a person, although I'm working on one thing, I'm thinking about what's my next step? How can I be greater? How can I do more? Not so much anymore, but at that time, that that was my thought process. And then it became how do I make an impact on my community? Not just for my son, right? I want to be an amazing mother to my son, but how do I make an impact on my community where I see the need, right? So now that I'm in college, I'm pursuing my degree here, I'm looking around, I'm older now, I'm seeing like there's a need here. It wasn't just me as a child that had a need, there's so much need here. And so, what can I do to try to bridge those gaps?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Wow. And when we were a student, you had teachers who advocated for you and to get into advanced classes. And how do those early moments of someone using their voice shape the advocacy that you do today? And like you said, you have many titles, but I just I'm very curious to see just a woman, just you're very strong, and there's a lot of odds that you had to face. So, how did you push through that? Even though you had some difficulties.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

So the teacher that you're speaking of is Mr. Smith, who is now the principal at General Hercommerce. Really? Yes. He's still in the he's still uh at you know in the in the field. Um, and I love him. He's great. Um, so when I was at Proctor, I was so I was in AIS math. So that was like additional support um for math. And he advocated for me to get out of AIS math because I was doing so well in his math class, and then I went on to be in advanced math classes. By the way, I graduated with the advanced reaches. Okay. Um, but it felt great, it felt it felt great to be seen, right? To feel seen. And so I truly appreciate him for that because he helped he allowed two things. I felt seen, but I also felt seen by a man, which is a little, a little different by my male figure who who wanted me to do, who wanted me to be the best version of myself and saw like my potential and what I was capable of. So just a little backstory. I felt seen prior to that. So when I was so growing up, we had uh my family had a lot of involvement with like um children and family services, CPS for those now that we know it's CPS, Child Protective Services. And so we had a caseworker, her name was Carlette, who worked closely with our family. I was super young, and I just I remember Carlette, and I remember like her constantly advocating for my family. Like, so we were able to go to different camps because of Carlette. They found the funding for it. She helped my mom get connected to different resources and services because of Carlette. And we were going through a difficult time, and she allowed me to feel seen. And so she inspired me to go into the field of social work. And so at the time, I may not, I did not know what the kind of work that she was doing was more human services related. But that's what inspired me to go into social work, and so feeling seen by adults beyond my family, yeah. I should say beyond my grandmother specifically, happened, yes, at Proctor, but also happened when my family was navigating the child, children, and family services. Um that's great.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Yeah, that's great. So you've you're opening up about your journey and just your experiences before before you even got into the career field. Would you say that shaped why you wanted to do what you wanted to do today?

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Absolutely. And so, fun fact, I saw Carla at I want to say Walmart recent uh maybe last year. Nice. And we've ran into each other, and I'm like, hey, I'm like, I don't know if you know, but this is what I'm doing now. And when I apply to colleges, right? Because you have to write your statement as to why you want to go there. You're my reason. Every time you're my reason, why do I want to go into this field? Why am I pursuing, you know, yes, my journey and my experiences, my childhood experiences informed that, right? And inspire me to pursue certain avenues. But because she was that light for me and that advocate for me in my family, I wanted to be that for other people. I didn't know what it was gonna shape out as, but I knew that I wanted to be that light for other people. And so as I did my research, I'm like, okay, social work is it. Like, this is what it is. Because there's so many different um avenues to social work and it's such a broad field that I definitely knew that that was the right field for me because of my experience with with Carlette. Shout out to Carlette.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Uh that I love your story so much. So, what is your message to the because it's we are celebrating Women's History Month, you had a lot of inspiring women in your life. If you had to give a message to young women in our community who might feel like there's certain obstacles are too big to overcome, what would you what would you say to them?

SPEAKER_00 8:09

In the moment, it may feel like it's too big to overcome. One day, whether it's a month, years from now, you will overcome it, right? And you'll look back like, wow, I really did that. And you at the moment it feels impossible, right? You may feel like you have no way out, or there's, but two things. There is a way out, it does get easier, it gets better, right? And tap into your resources, tap into your you, there's a community here for you, whether it's one person, whether it's three people, but there is somebody that sees your potential and that wants to support you, right? And is willing to support you, whether that's a friend, an aunt. Some people don't have their mothers in their life. And that's okay too. For me, it wasn't my mother, it was my grandmother, right? She did the best that she could with what she had. So I leaned into my mom struggled with what she had her struggles. That doesn't mean that it wasn't her, but I leaned into those who were willing to pour into me, despite how challenging it was to experience what I was experiencing at the time. And I think, like even as an adult, tap into your support system. I have really good friends. I don't have many friends, but I have a uh you know, a circle of really good friends that I can lean into as an adult experiencing challenges. So definitely it gets easier. Give yourself grace and tap into your support system. And you don't have one, talk to people, get to know people, and see who you feel like is worthy of being in your circle, worthy of sharing space with you and build off of that. Wow. And how do you determine that? How do you determine who is trustworthy? My experiences like as a childhood and growing up definitely taught me not to trust anybody. It definitely taught me not to trust anybody other than myself. So I became very hyper-independent, right? I don't need anybody for anything for a long time. That was me. I don't need, I'll just do it myself. Right. If you're not gonna ask me if I need help, I'm not gonna tell you I need help. That's how that was my mindset for a very long time. I want to say the past three years, I've gotten much better with that. I felt that. I felt that. Um, I got I have definitely um made some progress, but I it it taught me that I can only rely on myself. And at the end of the day, that wasn't hurting anybody but me because there were people who wanted to help me and who wanted to, you know, and who were willing to help me. So I was very, I was very hyper-independent for a very long time. And I'm current I'm currently past three years um doing, like I said, making a lot significant progress. But I was listening, I was either listening to a podcast or watching a TikTok because I love a TikTok. And so she was explaining. So this is what this is the advice I would give to people. Try your best not to allow your circumstances or your experiences, negative experiences, impact your ability to grow, right? Because that was impacting my ability to grow. Not trusting anybody was impacting my ability to grow. So I was watching this podcast, listening to a podcast, or it was a TikTok, and she was just saying how she teaches her children how to trust people or how to make friends. So she's like, imagine you have a jar and you start off with your jar full of marbles, right? Every person you meet gets a jar. And then as they do things that make them un that, you know, that are un where shows that they're untrustworthy, you take out a marble, and then you know, right, how much you can trust that person or what information you can trust that person with. But if you start off with a jar with marbles in it, you're giving that person a chance. Versus if you start off with a jar with nothing in it, you're already coming in with this preconceived notion that you can't trust this person.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

How do you feel about this analogy where there's like one empty cup and there's a full glass of water and it you keep pouring, the water is dirty, but if you keep pouring the water, it'll get cleaner. How do you feel about that analogy when it pertains to this?

SPEAKER_00 11:58

If you have an empty glass of water, you have two cups of water, what's empty, one's full, and you keep pouring, and the water will get cleaner. Yes. I think it's a perfect analogy that highlights growth. Yeah. Right over time. People grow, people change, right? So being flexible and being adaptable allows people, even yourself, the ability to grow and to change, right? And eventually, if you make if you continue to grow and continue to give yourself time, you'll change over time, and you can not clean up who you are, but maybe just change, right? Yeah. And create some growth. And it also shows you to give things time. Yeah. Everything doesn't happen overnight. Give things time. Relationships, time, yourself time. Because who you are, who I am today at I'm not gonna tell you I'm my age, at 21, who I am today at 21 is not who I am when I left for college, right? And there's so many experiences that have shaped who I am today. And so I continue to pour the cup of water until it shaped to who I am today. And who I am today is not gonna be who I am in two years. Your experiences that you have in life shape that.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Oh, I love my work here. Um, you led a massive team. I researched, you have 200 plus people that you have to lead. That's a lot. So, can you explain what you do in a day-to-day?

SPEAKER_00 13:26

A lot. Whatever you want to start with, I'm trying to think of. Um, so I just to give you a breakdown of the programs. So there's one program, um, it's called the UCS, we're all considered the UCS thesis. But our first pro the first program, our initial program that we launched, the partnership that we launched over three years ago, that program has to has four different pillars in it. So we have tier two supports, and that is for you know individual, not individuals, but children struggling with maybe their mental health, maybe they're struggling with school intrudency issues, behavioral challenges. The tier two supports will receive referrals for those students and work with them in the schools. Then we have special education supports. So we have behavior supports that push into the classrooms, the special education classrooms to provide some behavioral support in the classrooms. Um, there's also clinicians, and we also have um a physician assistant who does she does prescribe to students that are that need prescription, but beyond that, she also has a holistic approach where she works with students on a holistic level to see what they what they can do and what they can change holistically before even stepping into this these you need these meds, right? Or these are the meds that are gonna work best for you. And so shout out to Deanna. She's an amazing, she's an amazing provider, and she really goes above and beyond for the students that we support. So that was um tier two special ad. And then we have training education. So I have a team of folks who provide training and education to folks in the Utica City School District. So we provide trainings to admin, to teachers, to food service workers, to bus drivers. They even push into the classrooms, right, to provide support in the classrooms or maybe do maybe they want to learn about hygiene or transitioning to middle school. They push into those classrooms and do that as well. And then we have community initiatives. So community initiatives is part of that, the events that I see that you had brought up about. So I try, my team and I, we try to develop community events that bridge gaps and identify like if there's a need, how do we bridge that gap? So all the events that we put on are free to Utica City School District students and their families. And so one that you know combats the need to pay for something, right? There's so many of us, there's so many folks that are struggling with poverty, even with even with having two jobs, right? So now we're gonna put on this event, you don't have to bring anything but yourself. And people don't know who has it and who doesn't have it. So it's also eliminating or you know, the stigma associated with I can't struggle because I don't have the money or I can't pay for this, or I maybe have five kids and I can only bring two of my kids, I can't afford to bring the rest. Well, not with our events, anybody can come as they are because it's free. But there's also another component to that. Um, being exposed to new, you know, to other opportunities that maybe they would not have the opportunity to be able to be to be experiencing because they don't have the means. So we've recently done people love the skating event. So every year we do the ice skating event at Nexus Center. And we've learned through that that there's some families that have never been ice skating before, and they're bringing their parents and their grandparents and they're skating for the first time because we're providing these opportunities. We've done financial literacy workshops, and we do a series called Rise Up, which is a youth empowerment series um for young males in the community. We just did an event, we collaborated with Samil Hamilton. She did a girls' empowerment event. It's called Girls to Greatness. So girls were able to learn about working together, um, even getting um advice from Yandy Smith, which is uh she's a she's amazing. She's a celebrity who has multi numerous businesses who grew up in the projects, but she was able to um come on and share an inspired messing message with the youth. So those are just a few of the events that we've done. Um, so in that and it so in the main program, I call it the day program, those are some of the pillars that we have in that program. And then we have a separate programming um partnership with UCSD. So right now we are collaborating with Utica City School District, and I'm overseeing the RED program, which is the Extended Day Learning Program for Utica City School District, an enrichment program, similar to a um similar to like after school, but it's not after school. It's called an extended day. Gotcha. Um, so there it's in all the 10 elementary schools in Utica, and there's a thousand kids enrolled, so up to 100 kids in each building.

unknown 17:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

And so we have that's our newest project with um, and that launched in November. What are the kids doing? So the kids, so the structure of the program, the first hour is academics, so it's the academic hour. The second hour is like social emotional learning enrichment, and then they move into supper. So every kid in the program gets a snack and gets supper, which is amazing because there's some kids who don't go home to food. There's some kids who their only meal that they receive is at school. Yep. There's kids who are in that program who say, We don't want to go home. Right? Things aren't good at home. We don't want to go home. And what what that looks like, it varies per and you know, per child who's experiencing that. But to be able to provide children and families a safe space, right? A safe space where they can learn, they can explore new opportunities, they can socialize with kids that they may not have socialized with because typically, if you're in your classroom, right, you socialize with the kids in your classroom. But in the in the in the center of the day program, they're socializing with kids in different classrooms. So typically the kindergartners are together, first grade is together, but it may be kindergartners from different classes, so they can make new friends and socialize and learn about other people too.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

That's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

So you're a teacher almost too, huh? Well, not not necessarily. So the great thing about that partnership is that a majority of the staff in that that work the program are Utica City School District's teachers and CAs.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Yeah. That is really cool. How do you make sure everything just works the way it needs to? Because, like you said, it's kind of like an adapting thing. It it's with time and you learn, you're talking with the families. How do you navigate it?

SPEAKER_00 19:35

So all those things. I have an amazing team. I want to say I have the best team in ICANN. I'm sorry. No, of course. I I have the best, I have the best team, and I'm gonna brag about my team. Go ahead. So I have so although there's you know 200 plus people in the program, they don't directly report to me. There's a team. So I'm the director of the program, there's four program managers. So Max Cole, Sade Cardin, they all they're the program managers for the I call it the day program. That's how I separate the two. The day program happens during the day, and then the red program happens after school, so I call it the night program. So Shade and Max oversee, they're the program managers for the day program. And then my um, there's a supervisor, her name is Emily. She leads the um the training and education piece. So they have it on lock. And then I have Sarah Walsh and Donna, they're the program managers for the red program. And then in the red program, each site has a supervisor. So each, so there's 10 elementary schools, so each elementary school has a supervisor. I we lead together, so it's not just me leading, I have an amazing team. So when I said that I used to be hyper-independent, I'm not gonna say used to be, I still got it a little bit working through it, and I didn't ask for help. Growing in this program, that goes out the window, right? Because we're a team and there's they have roles and responsibilities that they have to do. I have roles and responsibilities that I have to do. So when something needs to get done, that's more of like with the direct report. The program manager addresses that or works with the staff directly. So each program manager has direct reports that report to them and they work with the staff. So I directly work with um the managers and the supervisor. Her name is Emily. I directly report with them. So and I have an amazing team. Like I can go out, like I don't work. Did I go recently? I think I went on vacation. I came back. No, they didn't bother me, they didn't reach out to me, they got it handled. They know what the expectation is. I know what the expectation is, but even more importantly, it's all about building like your relationship building. I have a great relationship with my team. And even beyond the managers or the supervisors, I um led a training or like a little workshop for the supervisors in the Red program. And I think it's being accessible too, I'm not too good. I'm not too good to be tapped into, I'm available. And my door is always open. I'm willing to have conversations with my staff. And they they could even text me. I have an amazing team, and I and I really am proud of the work that we're doing together because nothing, none of this would be possible if it wasn't for the people that show up and do the work every day.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

You could tell that everyone's so passionate. And do you think that's why you guys work so well? Because you relate to that and you care so much for the community?

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Absolutely. In in in my in the hiring process, I believe I interviewed most of the in our day program, I interviewed most of the people that we have on the team. And so when I'm interviewing people, I really am looking at skill, skill is great, but personality matters, right? Personality matters. And I look at personality and I look at is this person passionate? Are they willing to be flexible and adaptable? Do they how are they working? Do they work as a team? Because I think that that speaks values when those are the people that I want to, that I want to be a part of the team. Those are the people that I want to grow with. And and people that want to grow, because if I someday move on from this position, right? Because my goal is one day to make it to the executive team. So if I one day move on from this position, who on the team is ready to move into that spot? You know? And so it's all about each one, teach each one, teach one. So I'm here to model to be a my mentor to my to the people that report to me. And hopefully they're they take pride in being a mentor to the people that report to them. That's what it's all about. Each one teaching one. So I'm teaching them and leading them. Hopefully they're teaching and leading those that report to them as well. I'm not gonna say hopefully, I know they are. I'm confident they are.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

I love that. You're so sweet. Um, but you haven't mentioned that you you also founded Giving's Closet. Can you talk about that? Where did that inspiration for a donation? I won't even talk about it. You go into details, let me know about that. Let everyone know.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

That's my baby Given's Closet. So Given's Closet is the donation-based clothing closet that I started in around 2016. And so I started that again, childhood. So during my childhood, we were we lived in poverty. My grandmother, my mom too. My mom didn't. I don't think there was a time that our mom had a job. Yeah, I don't think I don't ever remember her working. My grandmother didn't work, she was on workers' comp. And so because she was hurt, she worked initially, but when I was born and when she took over my responsibility, she didn't work because she was hurt on the job during her younger years. So we definitely had to go to the Hope House. I remember going to the Hope House for meals at times. We used to go to food pantries to get food. We tapped into the Salvation. I don't know if it was the Salvation Army, but there were many local churches around here that would have their doors open on certain days because they had where you can go pick out clothes. Yeah, I used to have to go too. Yeah, where you had to go pick out clothes and you could fill up a bag for like two dollars, a garbage bag, and I used to be so excited. Right? Yeah. So now I love thrifting. Um so I used to be so, you know, excited to go get new clothes because I didn't really have right. Um, and so that inspiration, so that experience inspired me to create given's closet. So I was like, you know, I have kids at the child at the time. I don't know if I had my second son yet. And I'm like, you know, he's outgrowing all of his stuff. I don't want to give it away. So I create a given's closet because it during my childhood I didn't have, and I knew that there's people here looking, there's people here who are having that same experience. And what I did learn from when we used to go around to different clothing closets, sometimes it wasn't the best quality clothes, right? People will think that just because you don't have you can wear stuff with holes in it and just stay, you know, clothes with stains on it. And so the difference between what I created was that I was only accepting gently used items, right? You wouldn't wear anything with holes or stains on it. So why would you think it's appropriate, even though you're giving it to somebody, why would you think it's appropriate to give it to somebody else? So I had a different standard. And then what set me apart was that I drove the items. So if somebody reached out and said, Hey, I need A, B, and C, I would bring the items to that person. So that also was, you know, eliminating the transportation barrier because everybody doesn't have access to transportation. And so I was delayed you know, I was delivering um items all over. And I still do that. Um, my goal is to one day have a space right now. I run it out of my attic. My husband's not happy about that. He's like, When are you gonna get this stuff out the attic? I need this stuff. So um, and then every year I do an annual giveaway. Not giveaway, I do an annual um, yeah, it is like a giveaway. It's just free. So every year at the Parkway Rec Center. I well, I host it at the Parkway Rec Center this year. Um, yeah, I I I get all the clothes out the attic. I rent a U-Haul, put it in the U-Haul. Now I make my family help. My family help, my kids, my children, yeah. It's nice. They're working too. We're gonna load up, we're gonna load up this U-Haul and we bring it to um the steel brought it to the Parkway Rec Center. I had set up all the tables. I had people, different people wanted to come volunteer and help. And they helped, struggled to ask for help, or I didn't ask anybody to help, but somebody reached out and said, Hey, do you need something? Yes, I do. Working on that. Um, and so they people came out and helped. And I literally got rid of, I think I had like two totes left, and there was I have so much stuff in my attic. And so I'm constant, I collect all year round and I donate and transport all year round. Um, so yeah. That's essential.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

That's my baby, that's essential. And I especially that factor where yeah, a lot of people donate just broken close. You know, and they don't really consider that that just I it's not right.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

It's not appropriate, right? You don't want to walk around with whole time. Why would you think somebody else would? Because when you look good, you feel good. Yep. And when you feel good, you could you can tell you could tell who's feeling good, right? And how they're not all the time, but when you look good, you feel good, and then everything else around you starts to come together.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Very true. That is that is wonderful. Let's see. We talked about I love it. I love it. This conversation is so much fun. We talked about your wonderful team, we talked about Given's closet, but we didn't go into you managing the budget and all those community events and how your plate is full with just everything. How do you ensure that everything goes accordingly? We already talked about that, but we didn't talk about just how you manage the budget with your team.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Having a great team. Okay. All right. Having a great team. You know, I you know, I mean I manage the budget, but like with operations and all the events, we have a team and we all work well together. And I think that it also helps when I sometimes I I am boots on the ground, right? I'll be I go to the events, I plan like I most of the events, I plan the events, I show up for the events, I'm working the events. You need uh it needs to be mopped, it needs to be swept, I'm cleaning up, I'm setting up, I'm setting up, I'm breaking things down when it's time to close down. Because also modeling, I'm not too good to do any job on this team, right? We all can pitch in, we're all a team. And I and I'm and my team also realizes that too, you know. And then with the events, we have like I'll send out an email to the team because they don't have to work the events. But hey, who's who who you would like to volunteer? And 99% of the time, my team is volunteering to work the events. They love to be a part of it too. And I think that when you have an amazing team, things flow. Um, and amazing team, and part of being an amazing team is being flexible. There's a lot of flexibility and adaptability, right? Because things are gonna change. Are you flexible? Are you able to go with the flow and communication? We talk all the time, as much as we can, right? We speak all the time. My door is always open. And I think that being able to communicate with your team, had hard, have hard conversations and open and honest conversations is also important. And so because I have an amazing team, I'm able to do the director level work that I'm able to do because they're doing their work and the frontline staff are doing their work. And I think that that really truly um plays a vital role in managing everything that I do. My plate is full, but I love building programming. That's my thing. I love building programming, and I love building programming for the community that raised me.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

And that's what keeps you hungry, and that's what keeps me hungry. Absolutely. I'm super passionate. It's you like I'm super passionate about the work that I do here. And I don't know if people really realize that, but no, I realize that. I'm gonna show up 110% every time when it comes to my community. It's not because like my kids are here, yes, but the city raised me and some of the and a lot of the resources that we have here, I tapped into. And I know how crucial it is when you know, when you're a child and you're struggling and you don't have what you need, but there are resources that you can that tap into that help you, you know, that help you get to where you need to be as much as they can. And so I think it's extremely important to be that as a you know, as a program to those that we're serving. And my team know, like my the standard is above and beyond like, yeah, good is good is good, but we wouldn't be great. And we want our services that we provide to those we serve to be great as well.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

That is wonderful. Um and it just really makes it authentic as well and genuine because it loops back to your little child again. Do you see do you sometimes see yourself like you see your little self in someone sometimes? Or I don't know how else to word it, but is it surreal?

SPEAKER_00 31:36

I suppose it is surreal. I think that representation, I don't think I know representation matters, right? So I it goes back to each one to each one. There's no reason for me to know what I know, or you know, over time as I'm learning for me not to share with anybody. Like the whole point of me being here is for me to share it with somebody else and sh and share my information and my knowledge. Because what's the point of being here? When you leave on earth, you're gonna be like, Oh, I I left knowing everything that I know, I didn't share with anybody, I just kept it to myself. Right. Like, what's the point of that?

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

So representation matters when people see when people see other people that look like them, they're they they can be like, oh, I aspire to be like that because so-and-so did it, right? And it's hard for me to to for people to be like, well, it's even hard for me to be an honoree, right? And like, oh, you're getting this award. I'm like, for what? I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do. Like for me, there's nothing, there's nothing like if I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give my best at it, right? I'm always gonna come in and give 110%, even on the days, there's some days where I I don't feel my best, right? And I might be, I really don't want to talk today. Usually I'm very talkative and I'm saying hi to everybody, but I'm gonna always give my best, and I think that's important to show up as your best, but also when you're showing up as your best, knowing that somebody is watching, little kids are watching, they are looking for people that they can inspire to be like. And if I can share my story and be highlighted and and kids are reading about it, maybe, maybe not, they are reading about it because at one of the schools that we support, somebody, I don't know how they got the picture of me, but there's a picture of me posted on the wall, and they wrote about me on the picture. A little kid did. I'm like, who post who shared that picture? My friend sent it to me. I'm like, who posted that? It's like one of the kids wrote about you for women's mind um history, women's history month. Did I answer the question? But I think that it's important representation is very important because when I was growing up, we really didn't have a lot of people that look like me in certain spaces. And I think that it's important to one, teach other people and share your knowledge, but also show up as your best self because there are other people watching. And I'm not saying every day I'm showing up as my best self. I try, but I want other I want other little girls and boys that look like me to feel inspired and to want to do more to be better than me.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Showing up. I I can talk to you forever. You are so fun, but we're hitting our mark, and I'm we're gonna have to wrap up. And I want to make sure I have some time where you can put in any plug that you wanted to do uh or just say and share.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

I would just like to tell people to be themselves. I think that when you show up as your true authentic self, those who will gravitate towards you will gravitate towards you, and those who don't don't, and it's not even about people, opportunities, right? Things, things, things start to flow. And it's hard to be yourself because sometimes we think that we have to be other people or show up as something different to fit in, whether it's to fit in a job, fit in with people, fit in a relationship. Be yourself and allow yourself grace to grow and always allow your voice and always listen to your inner voice because you are never going to steer you wrong. And lastly but not least, treat yourself with kindness. I feel like sometimes we could be our biggest critics and we engage in a lot of self-talk, but you definitely should definitely try your best to pour into yourself, even when you have a negative thought, try to challenge that negative thought with something positive about yourself because you train your brain, what you feed your brain is what is going to come to fruition. So train your brain to speak positive about yourself, you know, to to speak positively about yourself because how you feel about yourself truly shines in how you show up, and you that's you're gonna attract the people that very true. You're gonna you're gonna attract certain people, right? But when you feel good about yourself and you know who you are and you're standing firm in that only things that align with that will come to you. You'll know how to have discernment and separate. That's not for me. That's not that doesn't align with who I am, right? And that will definitely um I feel like that's just a little a little nugget that I didn't have early on. And and it's and it's hard to learn. Oh, yeah. It's a process, and everything's a process. Give yourself grace, one step at a time.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

I love that. I love that. We have to invite you back again. Um, but congratulations on your award. We've been talking with Jessenya Ray about the power of live experience, the importance of school-based mental health, and the beauty of pouring back into the community that raised you. Jessenia is just one of eight amazing honorees. We are celebrating on Wednesday, May 6th at Vernon Downs for our second annual honoree recognition breakfast. If Jessenya's story inspired you, come help us celebrate her in person. Tickets are$50, or you can sponsor a table for$450. It's going to be a morning of full of passion and community spirit. RSVP by April 22nd at www.unitedwaymv.org slash breakfast. We'll see you there.