Beat
Street
AZ
Board
members
Speaking at the Poetry Slam Fundraiser.
Educating Beat Street AZ students.
A Session at Beat Street AZ!
Announcing Auction winners.
Celebrating Thanksgiving with our babies ; )
Checking out the DJ app!
Seeing what the students are working on.
Kickin' off summer of 2015!
The Pioneers!
our mission
"Beat Street AZ develops, educates, and empowers youth to become resilient, future-minded leaders in the community through
Hip-Hop culture."
President/Founder
Guillermo “Memo” Arrubla is a Colombian native whose parents migrated to New York when he was an infant. Being raised in New York, he persevered a violent and tumultuous upbringing. However, as a young child in the 80’s he discovered his love for Hip-Hop culture and its elements. Following college, Memo joined the ranks of NYPD where he served for 7 years to include his rescue and recovery efforts of 9/11. In 2006, Memo transferred to Phoenix PD where he is currently serving as a Sergeant. Memo feels strongly about being a positive influence and role model for our youth; therefore, in 1999 he chose to volunteer as a mentor for Mentor USA in New York. Since then, Memo continues to build opportunities and avenues for our youth. In 2011, Memo started the “Youth Academy” with Phoenix PD, which was designed to build bridges between law enforcement and the youth. In 2015, Memo founded Beat Street AZ as an intuitive approach to complimenting two of his biggest passions; Hip-Hop and youth mentorship. Memo strongly believes in community engagement as he has served on several boards to include, the Teacher Retention Project Advisory Board and Maricopa County’s Education and Prevention Advisory Board. Memo is a motivational speaker and has conducted presentations at several schools and institutions. He has been awarded the City of Phoenix’s Employee Excellence Award, the Medal of Valor by the Phoenix Police Department and by the City of Honolulu’s Ocean Rescue, and has been the recipient of the “Police Officer of the Year” award on four separate occasions.
Vice-president
Geoffrey Nail is a native "Michigander" who graduated from Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 2000. Mr. Nail subsequently graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Communications (2004). Mr. Nail has always shown an interest in community involvement, as well as being a mentor to those around him. Throughout high school and college, Mr. Nail showed an interest in mentoring his peers and underclassmen alike. Upon graduating, he became involved in the Financial Industry and eventually relocated to Phoenix, Arizona in 2014. He's held leadership positions in both Metropolitan Detroit and the Greater Phoenix area. Since becoming a full-fledged Phoenician, Mr. Nail has created a staunch relationship with several non-profits, using his financial background to help develop life skills in addition to overall financial education. Mr. Nail has an altruistic mentality that evoked his own passion towards mentoring and supporting those around him. Mr. Nail is a full-time; Registered Financial Representative who assists others in creating financial security and building wealth with their own financial situations and lifestyles. In his free time, you can catch him with a camera in his hand taking in the beautiful scenery that is Arizona.
secretary
Sandra Banuett was born in Los Angeles, California and moved to Tucson, Arizona at a very young age. She graduated from the University of Arizona with two Bachelors degrees in Business Marketing and Retail and Consumer Science with two minors in Communications and Political Science. Ms. Banuett had aspirations of building upon her degree and began a career in marketing. However, Ms. Banuett felt that her true calling was not being fulfilled as an individual that truly wanted to make a difference in her community. Therefore, Ms. Banuett took a leap of faith and decided to leave the field of marketing and began her journey to help youth in the community by becoming a teacher. Ms. Banuett is passionate about guiding our young community towards a prosperous and successful adult life.
Director of Social Media
Ms. Jennifer Roman was born and raised here in Phoenix, AZ. She has always had a passion for the arts. She attended South Mountain High School for the Dance Magnet program. While there, she realized that all of the different art forms rely on each other. She also noticed that for some, it was a way to express themselves in an unconventional way. Ms. Roman also was involved in the ACE Program at South Mountain Community College. There she was able to take college classes while still in high school. From there she attended Glendale Community College where she helped ACE Plus with recruiting, talking to kids about staying in school, and being a mentor to the kids. She credits dance for helping her become the person she is today and truly believes that the arts help influence children to become more independent, open minded, accepting, well rounded adults who are “outside-the-box” thinkers. Even now, Ms. Roman loves to go to dance performances to support and encourage the arts. Every once in a while, you can find her taking a class herself.
