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The YESS Institute received its 501(C)3 not-for-profit status in the fall of 2001. Susan Greer and Carlo Kriekels co-founded YESS to contribute their skills to youth and role models. They chose the not-for-profit form (1) to ease collaborations with youth agencies and schools (2) to provide affordable training through community funding.

In the start-up phase, they learned from speaking with many youth community leaders, the need for capacity buildging through mentor training.
The YESS Institute addressed this need by developing several specialized trainings, such as burnout prevention and positive role modeling, to provide mentors with the tools to deal with difficult situations in their relationship with their mentee.

Since 2003, YESS has implemented direct youth programs in the form of its Youth Mentor Leadership Programs. We strongly believe that the most powerful way of youth development is kids helping kids.

We want to acknowledge and thank our board of directors for their trust, support and contribution to the vision of YESS.

Rob Aghazarian - Board Chair

Owner of Robert V. Aghazarian, PC undergraduate degrees in psychology and business administration; long-time volunteer in youth leadership development

Ben Montgomery - Treasurer

Risk analyst (PricewaterhouseCoopers); undergraduate degree in business administration; philanthropist

Susan Beyda,MBA

Membership and Communications Director with
Colorado Business Community for the Arts
Expertise in PR, marketing and corporate philanthropy

Dr. Martha Urioste,Ph.D

Retired school principal (Denver Public Schools); well-known leader within Latino educational community; recipients of numerous awards such as Women’s Hall of Fame

Alex Padilla

Chair of Development Committee
full-time graduate student at the University of Colorado in Public Administration with concentration in nonprofit management

Rick Mera

Businessman/entrepreneur; real estate developer; former owner of Bolts Quality Car Care;

Kimberly Haubelt

Masters degree in Education
Teacher at Morey Middle School
She was schooled in Australia and also taught multi-cultural kids in Hawaii

Carlo Kriekels, Co-founder and Executive Director

As an expert personal development coach, Carlo Kriekels has successfully taught individuals from all over the world to incorporate people’s skills for positive change and personal responsibility. As the co-founder and director of The YESS Institute, his vision is to teach emotional intelligence (EQ) skills to role models, educators and youth.

Carlo, a Belgian native, who holds a J.D. Law degree from Belgium, a Magister legum (LL.M.) Law degree from Germany and is fluent in five languages including Spanish, decided in 1995 to make a career change. Realizing he wanted to make a more intimate contribution to people’s lives, Carlo started an intensive four-year training in personal development coaching. He built since an impressive track record in teaching leadership, communication and social emotional skills to groups and individuals in Europe and the United States.

His knowledge, enthusiasm and excellence is the driving force behind The YESS Institute. Carlo is a people person who is cooperating with top quality specialists and community leaders to create maximum impact for the youth community with innovative trainings.

During his 18-month motorbike trip from California to Chile, Carlo worked as a volunteer in a shelter for street children in Colombia, South America. He was so deeply touched by the lives of those kids that he vowed to himself to find ways to empower youth and provide them with choice. With YESS he is realizing his promise.

Alex Cordoba
Youth Mentor Specialist for Youth Mentoring Collaborative Program @ Kepner Middle School

Joining The YESS Institute was a natural transition for Alex Cordoba. Prior to YESS Alex worked for various organizations that strive to raise the quality of life and education for at-risk youth throughout the United States such as the Boys and Girls Club, Arts-Kids, Big Brother Big Sister and AmeriCorps. Alex’s mother once told her that, “big things start with someone seeing something and wanting to make a difference, then taking the necessary steps, even just small ones, towards making a difference.” After volunteering in such places as Tunica, Mississippi, Juarez, Mexico and working with street children in Bolivia, Alex had seen something, a lot of somethings, and realized then that her calling was with at-risk youth and fighting for their Human Rights.

When not working at YESS, Alex, who is from Chicago, enjoys photography, traveling, speaking Spanish, reading, watching movies, snowboarding, yoga and all things outdoors. She graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in Sociology & Anthropology and has studied photography and Spanish extensively in Bolivia, Cuba, Costa Rica and at the Middlebury Language School and the Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado. One day she wishes to travel the world and photograph the conditions in which our children are living in and share them with the world!

Alexandra Wald
Youth Mentor Specialist for Program at Denver Center for International Studies and Lincoln HS

Alexandra Wald first came to the YESS Institute through a rare volunteer opportunity which she accepted in November of 2006. Prior to this date she had traveled all over Europe and the South Pacific, spending the majority of her journey with various indigenous tribes. It was here that she came to realize her true passion for helping at-risk youth. Since then she has been dedicated to leading them on a path towards recognizing their full potential as human beings.
Alex went to the University of Colorado at Boulder and graduated with her BA in Sociology. There she worked on several committees, her biggest contribution being to the Conference on New Directions in the Study of Race and Ethnicity. She was able to work first hand with many influential members dedicated to change within the state of Colorado. This helped her to discover many things about herself including her genuine interest in ethnic and race relations within the United States. Some of her other passions include traveling, love for the outdoors, seeing live music, snowboarding, and scuba diving.

Daniel Medina
Youth Advocate at Lincoln High School - contracted by YESS to co-facilitate the Lancer Leaders Program

Daniel is helping the same kids that he once was. He dropped out of Lincoln high school as a freshman, was involved with the local gangs and ran away from home. He got married at 18 and by 30 he had a family of six kids to provide for by working minimum wage jobs. His life turned around by taking the GED and starting his own construction company.
During all these years, Daniel volunteered as a sports coach for kids with great results.
In 1999, Lincoln high school asked him to make a career change: become their community liaison and sports coach. The school was at the time absorbed by too many local gang territory fights. During the first years, he went to the streets to bring the non-attending kids back to school, placed negative peer leaders in small alternative schools and increased parent involvement. His hands-on model combined with the credibility of his background and personality has helped graduate many “lost kids.”