USD Magazine Summer 2015

[ h e a l i n g ] Alumnae-led nonprofit supports and guides girls LOSS AND RECOVERY

nonprofit that would nurture young girls going through such a loss. “For some, it’s recent. Some have been abandoned, or have moms that are incarcerat- ed, or absent for a long time due to military deployment.” “We just want to help them with all the things girls look to their mother for,” says San Juan. “Things like getting through puberty, learning to cook, bal- ancing a checkbook.” When San Juan decided to return to San Diego, Ruiz soon fol- lowed, determined to see the idea of the nonprofit move from dream to reality. During the time it took to jump through all the hoops that go into setting up a 501(c)3 organization, the pair began to recruit others to their cause.

by Julene Snyder avigating through the pain of losing a mother toward a pathway to acceptance and healing is the goal of nascent nonprofit Chula’s Mission. Co-founded by Mayra San Juan ’07 (BBA) and her friend Lyndsey Ruiz, the organization aims to help girls who’ve lost their mothers by offering a haven that includes dynamic grief counseling and incorpo- rates cooking classes and other activities. N

“We’ve set parameters that we work with girls from the ages of 11 to 13, but we won’t turn anyone away,” explains San Juan (pictured at bottom right). The advice to hone in on a particular age group came from someone who sadly has insight into such major life losses: Brent King, father of murdered San Diego teen Chelsea. “He advised us to really narrow it down and focus on a particular age group. How- ever, if asked, we’ll work with girls as young as five.”

San Juan’s mother passed away suddenly of a brain aneu- rysm in 2010, which led to her daughter’s decision to relocate from San Diego to Texas in order to be closer to family. She started working at a preschool, which was where she met Ruiz, who had lost her mother to can- cer years before. “We clicked right away,” recalls San Juan. “I told her about my mom on my first day on the job.” Before long, Ruiz shared her idea with San Juan: to form a

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