2013 American Youth Leadership Program – Paraguay Ari Comart (Mentor)
Ari is a teacher in Washington, DC at a high-performing charter school called Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy. He teaches Geometry, Algebra and English Fiction, and a new self-designed course called Principles of Leadership that has acquainted students with the qualities of strong leadership, pushing them to explore self-initiative, accountability, humility and honesty. Ari enjoys traveling and has extensive travel experience around Latin America and Europe. He is also fluent in Spanish and currently works with many Spanish speaking students in his classroom. “I have found that knowledge of foreign peoples and cultures is integral to understanding one’s own culture, and this is particularly valuable for students and young leaders.” Magdalena Salazar (Mentor) Maggie is from San Antonio, Texas. She is a native Spanish speaker whose family is from Mexico. She currently works as a Youth Program Facilitator for the Alamo Colleges facilitating leadership, entrepreneurship and serviceoriented activities with youth groups. She hopes that her time as an AYLP mentor will help her in her goal of becoming the director of a non-profit or service-learning agency where youth adults excel as service leaders. Additionally, Maggie hopes to purse a masters’ degree in organizational leadership in the next two years. “I want to be a facilitator to help students develop the ideas they have about becoming a global leader. I am excited about the opportunity to share my experiences with others.”