Yesenia Garcia-Fortuna
Bank Street School for Children '98
Because of my time at Bank Street, I really know the value of leaving your comfort zone and the impact it can make. I saw myself in that new space, taking risks, overcoming challenges, and succeeding in ways I wouldn’t have imagined.
Yesenia Garcia-Fortuna is the executive director of Summer Search, a New York-based organization that connects high school students to transformational summer experiences and full-time professional mentoring that supports students in developing future academic and personal plans. In her role, she leads her team in strategic planning and procuring resources to provide these opportunities.
Garcia-Fortuna’s parents had immigrated from Colombia and she became a first-generation college graduate. When she looks back, she sees herself as a child who benefitted from finding mentors to guide her.
“I had to navigate finding mentors on my own as a second-generation immigrant and the oldest child,” Garcia-Fortuna said. “I think high school is such an important time, but students are not always connected to positive adults or they’re not getting the guidance they need. For young people who are drawn to my program today, I recognize that having a mentor can be so meaningful.”
When she was 11, Garcia-Fortuna was led to transfer from her New York City public school to Bank Street School for Children through mentors at an organization called Prep for Prep. She explains that Bank Street’s small, supportive community allowed her to step up.
“As a Bank Street student, the safety of the community gave me the confidence to see myself as a leader and a contributor. I’ve taken that mindset with me everywhere I’ve gone,” Garcia-Fortuna said.
With her success as a School for Children student and inspired by her experience with Prep for Prep, Garcia-Fortuna chose to pursue a career in education, landing her first job in the field at Bank Street Summer Camp. Later, with a BA in Hispanic and Latin American Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics from Stony Brook University and an MSW from Hunter College in hand, she worked as a counselor at Children’s Aid Society, developed a college access program at Harlem RBI, and founded the college program at the Boys Club of New York. This success inspired her to help found and lead Matriculate, a national virtual college advising organization serving high-achieving low and moderate-income students and their families. After almost nine years leading Matriculate, she advanced into her current position as the executive director of Summer Search.
“Because of my time at Bank Street, I really know the value of leaving your comfort zone and the impact it can make. I saw myself in that new space, taking risks, overcoming challenges, and succeeding in ways I wouldn’t have imagined.”
Watch her describe her work and experience at Bank Street.