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Hello everyone,
I'm Katherine Aguilar, and I'll be your Vice-President for YPWA's 23-24 season! Our 12th season, and it is my second as a YPWA board member, last year I was in charge of Community Engagement and DEI. I am excited for this transition as your new VP! Thank you to our departing board members, Catrina Gardner and Veronica Basdeo. We appreciate everything you have done for YPWA as board members, and during 23-24 board transitions. As we look forward, I wanted to share a little bit more about myself.
I am the CEO and Founder of my own company K Sense Co., an eco-conscious gift boutique, the first of its kind here in Worcester. We opened in 2019 and we were located inside the Public Market for 3 years. We recently transitioned back to online & pop-up business-model rather than full-time brick & mortar. I also handcraft our main product- soy candles, we focus on sustainability and repurposing glass and ceramic vessels by cutting them and filling them with soy wax and unique high quality fragrances. I am also a dog-mom to 4 unique dogs, a proud auntie and I also volunteer on two other boards here in the city. League of Women Voters: Worcester Area & Pride Worcester. I am passionate about empowering Women, civic engagement, diversity and inclusion, creating safe and fun events for the BIPOC & Queer community. In my free time I also enjoy cooking, dancing, traveling, swimming, and cycling.
Although I was born in El Salvador, I have grown up in Worcester, graduating from Doherty Memorial High, Quinsigamond Community College, and Worcester State University. I am obsessed with our beautiful city and have enjoyed the cultural and economic opportunities that have blossomed over the past few years, but as we know we are not a perfect city and we need to advocate for those without a voice. This is why I love being apart of YPWA, meeting other like minded women, being able to network and make connections and collaborate on events, projects, or even fundraising for each other has made quite the difference for me and for my business.
During my time as a YPWA member and board member I am proud that I have been focused on for the group such as:
Expansion of diverse woman-owned venues, food vendors, and more to introduce members to new, up and coming businesses
Collaboration with other groups to co-host events
Focusing on giving back, expanding our period fundraiser from just 1 event a season to a season long collection project, plus we get to partner with Girls Inc. (I use to go as a young girl) and we are giving back to women in need in my home country!
Working alongside Gillian Murphy (our amazing President) has been quite the dream, I could say it's because we are two Aries queens ♈️, or it could be because we both truly believe in our mission; empowering women in Worcester through professional and personal development. So I am very excited for all the events we have planned- a total of 22 events for the year, more than we have ever planned before so make sure you check out our save the date card and add in a reminder to get your tickets.
On top of all these amazing events we are proud to announce some changes to the organization as a whole. We are now fiscally sponsored by Worcester Caribbean American Carnival Association (WCAC) making us a 501c3, opening up sponsorship and grant opportunities to better serve you and new members. We are also finalizing the details for our new scholarship fund, an opportunity for our members, your companies, and other community partners to pay into, so we can offer free or reduced membership to those in need. With the cost of living being so high, we are hard at work to make sure we can be accessible while still offering the highest quality experience to our community.
I am so excited to serve you, to continue serving the board, and making YPWA as fun and inclusive as I possibly can. I look forward to meeting and reconnecting with you all throughout the season.