Good Houskeeping Features Point of Light Honoree Barbara Victoria Allende

Barbara Victoria Allende is a VP at Citi, which funds ServiceWorks as part of the Pathways to Progress initiative. She volunteers at Jersey Cares and Youth Build Newark as a Success Coach. In her volunteer role, she helps first-generation college students ease their transition from high school to college. This work has become very personal for Allende, whose history mirrors the challenges of one of her scholars. As a teen mom, she struggled to care for her son and both of them ended up in foster care. Her life began to turn around, after school administrators took an interest in her by helping her apply for social service support and hounding her to finish high school. Now, as a mentor to a teen mom, she said, “I want so badly for her to create her own success story and hear about the amazing person she and [her] son become.”

To learn more about Barbara’s story, check out the November issue of Good Housekeeping– on stands October 18th.