Yesenia “Yessi” Aguilar is the Operations and Project Coordinator with the Center for Digital Thriving. She is a multilingual educator and program manager with more than a decade of experience bringing people together across languages, cultures, and experiences. She joined the Center for Digital Thriving because its mission—to help young people navigate digital life in ways that support connection, reflection, and growth—aligns deeply with her commitment to helping learners discover what they’re capable of.

Yessi believes everyone has their own kind of genius, and that our strengths are not always measured in the ways we expect. Guided by the idea that if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its life believing it’s inadequate, she is committed to creating spaces where people—especially young people—can recognize their own unique strengths. She has learned that the moments that teach us the most about ourselves tend to happen when nothing goes according to plan. 

Outside of work, Yessi has completed over 8,000 miles of long-distance hiking, including the Pacific Crest, Continental Divide, and Appalachian Trail. She finds that the lessons of the trail often make their way back into everything she does.