Up2Us Sports Summer VISTA: Kenia Villacres

On Monday, June 29, Up2Us Sports officially welcomed 180 Summer VISTAs to the 2020 Up2Us Sports Summer VISTA Program. 180 VISTAs started their nine-week service term at 100 nonprofit organizations nationwide. Their term will end on Friday, August 28th.

15 of the 180 VISTAs have been serving internally at Up2Us Sports in various capacities. We are excited to have this group of ambitious service members help our team across the nation, which will in turn help us better serve our 1,700+ member organizations, 470+ host sites and 250+ coaches in the days and months ahead.

We wanted you to get to know the 15 VISTAs who have spent their summer helping grow the capacity of Up2Us Sports from within.


Name: Kenia Villacres

Age: 26

What city are you located in?
Metairie, Louisiana

What department within Up2Us Sports are you serving in?
Programs - New Orleans

*Kenia also served as an Up2Us Sports Coach from August 2019 - June 2020 at Overtown Youth Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

What led you to want to do a service term, particularly right now?
Open opportunity.

What does national service mean to you?
Serving my community by learning something new.

What is one thing you hope to take away from your 9 weeks of service?
Gmail, calendar, time management.

Did you play sports and did It have an impact on why you decided to serve at a youth sports organization?
Yes, staying persistent.


Kenia has been flexible and willing to take on any challenge or task we’ve thrown her way this summer. Plus she’s done it all with a smile and a great attitude! Having her on our team this summer really helped us build our capacity to create new programming for coaches and prepare us for the new program year. We’re going to miss her when her service term is over!
— Addie Fargason - Program Director, New Orleans