Maria Garciaz: a guide and a mentor.

• Author: Watson, Mark
• Position: Around Utah: People

When Maria Garciaz was a teenager, she turned her life around with the help of a few adult mentors who taught her important life skills. The lessons learned made such an impact that she has dedicated the past 30 years of her life to helping young people in similarly tough situations.

"When I was growing up, our family was a bit of a transient family so I was pretty much an at-risk youth myself," Garciaz says. "There were just a lot of people who reached out to me to guide me, so I think I always felt that it was important for me to do the same thing for others."

Garciaz earned a bachelor's of science degree from the University of Utah in political science and a master's degree in education from Utah State University. She also completed an executive program in community development at Harvard.

"I had two goals when I graduated. One was to be an engineer and the other was to be a lawyer," she says. Her life direction changed when she went to work as a probation officer for a juvenile court.

"I started to work with young people who were involved in the court system, and I found it gratifying to teach them how to access resources in the community to help them to build their skillset as well as help their own families," she says. "I fell in love with working with the community because I was one of those kids when I was growing up who was high-risk."

In 1982, Garciaz began volunteering for NeighborWorks Salt Lake, a private nonprofit organization that helps revitalize older neighborhoods in Salt Lake City and Murray. NeighborWorks Salt Lake provides resources for people living in older, dilapidated areas to reshape and improve their neighborhoods. The organization focuses on homeownership services, community building and economic development. It also includes programs to help young people improve their...