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THE PESA POST
The latest news, views and announcements from
Parents, Educators/Teachers & Students in Action

February 24, 2022
FACES OF PESA: Nataly Kemdjian
A simple act of serving as a high school Teen Court juror has profound life-altering implications
Regular readers of this newsletter may have noticed a recurring theme when it comes to the passionately committed associates of PESA: Those who work with the CBO always do so out of a desire to effect change in others, but often are so positively impacted by the experience that they themselves end up significantly affected by it.

Such is the case with Nataly Kemdjian, PESA’s Assistant Director of Youth Services. Kemdjian first came into the orbit of PESA as a high schooler volunteering as a juror for her school’s Teen Court program, this particular one being at Grant High School in the San Fernando Valley. She was so impressed with the experience that she wanted to continue her association with PESA, first as a Teen Court proctor. Then, while attending Pierce College and UCLA as a political science major with an eye on law school, she worked as a PESA tutor and eventually a social work case manager. Little did she know at the time that the cumulative experience was beginning to shape a life-course correction.

“I knew since elementary school that I was going to be a lawyer,” says Kemdjian, a second-generation American whose Armenian-immigrant parents left then-Soviet-dominated eastern Europe in the 1970s in pursuit of the American Dream. “My whole family works in the legal field as paralegals and in other capacities, and they wanted a lawyer in the family.” But, she says, after some internships and summer jobs with law firms, she realized she wasn’t quite finding her passion in that line of work. Not to mention that she wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of incurring several hundred thousand dollars in law-school student loan debt for something that may not be the right fit.

Conversely, she was getting quite fired up by helping others through PESA. “I was doing case management with a social worker,” Kemdjian recalls, “who said, ‘You know, you don’t have to become a lawyer. You’re really good at social work.’” 

The lightbulb moment came when she was working with one particular client with whom she had established a very positive rapport that, in turn, helped improve the boy’s progress with his social worker. “I was so excited,” says Kemdjian. “I decided then and there to apply to USC’s masters of social work program!” Indeed, she is now on track to graduate in December with an MSW degree.

Clearly, the PESA experience for Kemdjian has been transformative.

“When you interact with anyone at PESA, you’ll see they live, breathe and bleed their community,” says Kemdjian. “No one is here just for a paycheck, or just to get some necessary hours of training. They’re here because they see that PESA is helping their community, and they want to be a part of that.” ■

If you’d like to support PESA’s many social and educational initiatives, please contact us.