Volunteer Spotlight: Carleen Sierra

A blog post by ywrc on February 17th, 2024

This month we are excited to celebrate one of our dedicated volunteers, Carleen Sierra!

Carleen first became involved with the YWRC after receiving an assignment in one of her classes to do a community service project. She wanted to volunteer at an organization that directly impacts women and girls and found the YWRC through an online search.

Now, a year and a half later, Carleen is one of our most active Y-Dub Club volunteers. This is a vital volunteer role at the YWRC and aligns with her strengths. “I signed up for the role because I enjoy organizing, cleaning, and doing miscellaneous tasks! My favorite part about my volunteering role is that it is very flexible, and no two days are the same. One day, I could organize a room; the other day, I could move furniture around the building!”

For Carleen, volunteering at the YWRC is all about her drive to impact the community. “I volunteer at YWRC because of the environment and people that YWRC has created. YWRC has people who support and uplift me, care about my well-being, and want to reach my goals: uplift and support communities in the Des Moines area and beyond!”

Volunteering offers Carleen the opportunity to make a difference for others while also developing critical personal skills. “Volunteering is important because it is a very collaborative role. You often have different types of people who come together for one goal: to help the community. While volunteering, you learn skills like collaboration, leadership, and critical thinking.”

These skills inspire Carleen’s advice to today’s youth:

“Don’t take failure personally; if something does not go according to your plan, it is not the end of the world. The world does not end if you fail a test, it does not end if you do not get the job you were hoping for, it does not end if you do not get into the college you wanted, it does not end if failure happens. Learning to bounce back from failure only makes you stronger!”

Here are three things you may not know about Carleen:

  • She has a dog named Tito. He’s a very smelly dog, even though he is bathed frequently!
  • She secretly like the Twilight series.
  • She likes watching ear wax removal videos.

Thank you, Carleen, for everything you do to support the YWRC and empower our participants to be strong, self-confident, and resilient!