Alumni Spotlight Series – Margrita van der Hoek
Get to know our Youth Coaching Institute alumni community. This column will feature the stories from our network of 500+ youth coaches spread throughout the world. YCI alumnae are diverse, but they share a common commitment: transforming the lives of adolescents and young adults. Read about their experiences with YCI here.
Series #1
Name: Margrita van der Hoek, MA, ACC
Business: Veredas Coaching
Get to know Margrita:
Margrita found Youth Coaching Institute as an executive coach searching for an opportunity to deepen her knowledge and experience in coaching youth. She learned about the field through a training course in Mexico, and went to Google to search for evidence-based coach trainings that focused on adolescents and young adults.
She describes her initial impression of YCI as personalized, warm, and professional. “I really investigated the training program. Dr. Leah Mazzola (YCI founder) was very proactive in communicating with me and answering all of my queries and questions.”
Margrita completed the Certified Youth Resilience Coach program in 2020. “The teaching staff is warm, knowledgeable, and helpful. The program is very interesting. I looked forward to the classes every week.” She says the training format is robust and provides real-time opportunities for growth. “The methodology is very good, and you feel you build a relationship with the staff and the cohort even though it is online. The training program includes lots of opportunities to practice on each other.”
Margrita struggled to find the confidence to start her own practice, but she says YCI was there to help. “I liked the fact that YCI and Dr. Leah really try to stay in touch and be of support even after students finalize the course. The staff really focuses on the practical side of starting your own business. Once you finish the program, you really do feel that you have the tools, skills, and knowledge to begin coaching young people.”
Margrita started a private practice in Chapala, Mexico called Veredas Coaching and is the founder of a life skills non-profit for teens called SALTO. She also helps develop new coaches as a YCI coaching practice evaluator and is part of the teaching staff at “Escuela Iberoamericana de Habilidades para la Vida.” She believes YCI changed her life and helped her unlock the ability to make an impact in her community. “I really feel that I have become a different person since I discovered coaching. I like myself more now (the friend, the daughter, the mother, the wife, the sister that I have become). I listen so much more and judge so much less. I do a lot of self-coaching. I set goals and make action plans. I feel so much more confident in my personal and professional life.”
Her advice to any prospective YCI trainees? “I tell them to do it, it can only bring good and positive things. I am so grateful to YCI. Dr. Leah and the rest of the staff are such ethical people. They genuinely want others to thrive.”
CTA: Want to be the next coach to transform the lives of young people? Check out our training programs here.
