Sanaly Santiago-Vaughn
This month’s installment of our Staff Spotlight series features the Director of Youth Employment, Sanaly Santiago. As the Director of Youth Employment, Sanaly is responsible for recruitment, enrollment, and onboarding of participants of SYEP and Work, Learn and Grow program. Sanaly says the work we do is powerful because through SYEP we’re many young people’s first point of employment. “I find power in employment in general. As a young person being employed gives you agency, financial independence, and they get creative experiences that they would not otherwise get,” she adds. “What I love the most is that we are the first point of employment and a lot of people’s first experience in the workforce which is so powerful in itself.”
Born and raised in the Bronx, Sanaly is fluent in Spanish and has a Bachelors of Arts in English and a Bachelors of Science in Criminal Justice. Sanaly joined us back in 2019 as the Youth Employment Coordinator and she said she decided to continue work with Beam Center because she wanted to work in youth development. “Work is somewhere you spend so much time so I wanted to work somewhere that felt like a community and somewhere I can be my full authentic self without fear of judgment,” she continues on to say. “Beam Center is one of those places where you don’t have to worry about creating a seat at the table, there’s always a seat at the table for you.”
Prior to her work at Beam, Sanaly was a Program Assistant at Rocking the Boat, a 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund Paralegal, and a Team Administrative Specialist at the Center For Employment Opportunities. Sanaly says her first experience in the workforce was nothing like Beam Center. She adds that at Beam Center we teach young people about what safe environments and communities look like; and what the standard they should set for themselves when they are looking for a job. Sanaly says, “We are a lot of young people’s gateway into the workforce… and they take the experience we give them and wherever they go they know this is the standard.” Here at Beam Center, through our programming we empower young people to advocate for themselves through a creative, fun, and joyful environment.
When asked what her favorite moment is working for young people, Sanaly says, “It’s the excitement in young people when they end up being at jobs and they love what they are doing.” She also adds, “it makes me happy when there’s a youth we placed at a site and then they end up getting hired for full time afterwards. We connect youth and then they make the next move.”
Outside of work, Sanaly says she is passionate about creative writing, event planning, DIY projects and crafting. We’re grateful to Sanaly for her work with the Youth Employment Team and the diverse experiences she brings into the workforce. Thank you Sanaly for being part of the Beam team.
