Ileana Naranjo is a macro Social Worker with a career focus on youth development. She received her Master in Social Work from the University of Southern California with a concentration in Community Organization, Planning and Administration. While working towards her Masters in Social Work, she performed a program evaluation for Year Up's Peer Support Program, as well as school violence threat assessments and interventions for school districts. She became interested in youth development while working as a teacher assistant for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Ileana was an AmeriCorps member, where she mentored youth in foster care and youth in LAUSD’s Juvenile Delinquency Program. Ileana’s passion and focus are to ensure that schools and communities are supporting and empowering young people to be changemakers.
Author's posts
Mar 14
#APYDCHAT: Ending Youth Homelessness
Approximately 4.2 million youth in America are experiencing homelessness. Unfortunately, being homeless is something that is not always visible to the public eye. Homeless youth, in particular, are a hidden population that often couch-surf with friends, and are left out of most Point-in-Time counts. Still, current data indicate that youth homelessness is on the rise. From …
Jul 24
#APYDCON 2017: Youth Activism and Social Change
In 2014, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy in education for girls in Pakistan and around the world. Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez is the youth director of Earth Guardians and is at the frontline of climate change activism. Malala and Roske-Martinez are two of many youth activists who …
Apr 04
Improving Student Behavior Through Engagement
Have you ever been in a long meeting, training, or school lecture, and found yourself falling asleep, or having your mind wander? If so, this most likely happens because the event is boring, and there is a disengagement between you and what is being presented. Similarly, students can find their classrooms boring and feel unmotivated …
Mar 27
Breaking the Bonds: Moving Away from Zero-Tolerance Policies
Many of us probably grew up witnessing classmates being sent to detention, and some of us might even have feared being sent ourselves. Although our fear of detention was mostly due to the fear of getting in trouble with our parents, we were also aware that detention was a few steps away from being expelled …