Congratulations CYLA’s AmeriCorps Class of 2023!

City Year Los Angeles wrapped up another year of service with a bang at Universal Studios’ City Walk, celebrating the dedication of over 100 AmeriCorps members who served a total of 127,127.5 collective hours and supported more than 13,000 students. City Year Los Angeles took over the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium to present incredible awards, speeches, performances and team shout outs.

Starting off the graduation celebration, Trevor Crest, AmeriCorps member experience director, shared a warm welcome remark, emphasizing the incredible dedication of our corps members. Dr. Sandra Cano, executive director of City Year Los Angeles, shared about how inspired and encouraged she was as she got to know the 2023 AmeriCorps members this year.

Dr. Sandra Cano also awarded Emily Chajon (team leader at 122nd Elementary School), Jose Lopez (team leader at Roosevelt High School), Andres Hernandez (second-year AmeriCorps member at Roosevelt High School), Jennifer Martinez-Montez (team leader at Santee Education Complex) and Diana Garcia (team leader at Stevenson Middle School) the Bronfman Hauptman Leadership Award, which are given to AmeriCorps members who have served two years and are leaving to pursue leadership opportunities.

Nia Cathcart, who served at Stevenson College and Career Prep also received the Sony Pictures Storyteller of the Year Award, which was given to her to recognize her dedication to telling the story of City Year.

Our graduating class got a big surprise from this year’s corps speaker, who was elected to speak on behalf of the corps at graduation. Rylee Rivera, who served at Carver Middle School, wowed her peers with an original song titled “A Year of Service,” which summarized the everyday feelings and emotions that come as an AmeriCorps member and completely hyped up the corps members and staff. Check out the video and follow along with the lyrics below:

I Just woke up
And you know I barely got no sleep
Rolling out of bed
Tryna find something to eat
Put on my yellow jacket
Bag gotta pack it
Didn’t do my hair
So I’m pulling up wacky
7:15 in the room where we meet
Bout to power greet
Gotta bring the energy
Next thing you know bell rings
First period
Logging pac sessions
Yea it’s time to get serious
Social emotional
Make sure you’re approachable
10 hours every day
That’s a non negotiable
Teaching students skills
Like how to be sociable
Time hits five o’clock
And you know we running out the door

You have enough strength to share
We show up because we care
We made our way to the end
Met students and made some friends
Please give yourself a big hand
Because you stuck to the plan
You put your heart in a cause
And you deserve an applause

And to give the entire corps the acknowledgment they deserve, each of our Program Managers came up to issue Team Awards. These awards are special because they uniquely represent each individual team’s strengths and qualities.

As our AmeriCorps members now join the more than 3,500 alums, we want to thank them for their service and cannot wait to see all the great things they will accomplish. We hope that the year that they have dedicated to serving the students of Los Angeles will be evidence that anyone can make a difference in this world.