Yasiris Ortiz brings table tennis and mentorship to New York kids

Yasiris Ortiz is using her name recognition for something bigger than a highlight reel. The Dominican-born table tennis champion, now featured by NBC News in a May 1 segment, is making the sport visible to New York kids through Spin and Learn, a program built around movement, learning and mentorship.

That matters because Ortiz is not arriving as a celebrity side project. Spin & Learn says she began teaching Bronx youth in after-school programs in 2016, launched the project as a passion effort at a South Bronx public school in 2018, and officially incorporated the organization in 2020. Since then, the group says it has reached more than 10,000 students across New York City.

The scale has continued to grow. A later profile says Spin & Learn has partnered with more than 45 public schools across the city and served thousands of K-12 students through in-school enrichment, after-school programming, wellness days, assemblies and author visits tied to Ortiz’s children’s book, Yasi the Champion. The Spin & Learn Foundation says its Bronx-based work centers on free and low-cost programs for economically disadvantaged children, adults and seniors, with an emphasis on wellness, resilience and leadership.

Ortiz’s appeal is obvious in New York, where table tennis can still feel tucked into parks, school gyms, recreation centers and club spaces rather than fully built into the youth sports pipeline. The program’s model uses that familiarity as an entry point. If a child can meet the sport in school and then find coaching, repetition and a trusted adult in the same setting, ping pong becomes less of a novelty and more of a pathway.

Her competitive record gives that effort weight. The International Table Tennis Federation reported that Ortiz and Emil Santos were Caribbean champions at the 2018 Caribbean Senior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, and that Ortiz helped the Dominican Republic to team and doubles titles there as well. U.S. Table Tennis also reported in 2026 that Ortiz remained part of the Dominican Republic women’s team in international competition, underscoring that she is still active as an athlete while building access at the local level.

The Bronx Times reported that Ortiz is 28 and said she had launched an after-school program and a new nonprofit to expand access and diversity in the sport. It also noted that the reporting took place at PingPod, which has nine locations across the city, a reminder that New York already has a growing table tennis footprint if the right coaching and school partnerships can connect it.

Ortiz has become the face of that bridge: a champion whose reach now extends beyond medals and into classrooms, where the next generation is first learning what table tennis can be.