By Elisa Garcia
Health is more than a number on a scale, but a mindset — a mindset that can shape building blocks to help you succeed in life. Whether you’re a newbie to health or not, Latinitas launched its final week of virtual summer camp, Healthy Chica, where 25 chicas learned the importance of self-image, self-care, fitness, and cultural awareness through soul projects.
Each day, the girls broke down what being healthy meant by participating in lessons such as meditation and mindfulness, processed foods, vision boards and baking a healthy friendship.
Program Leader Jasmine Juarez, co-creator of Healthy Chica curriculum, said she hopes to inspire the girls by providing them with the best experience possible and giving them the resources they need to live healthy lives.
“I’m super passionate about taking care of ourselves,” Juarez said. “I really want to inspire girls to take care of their image and their mental and body health since both are important and go hand in hand.”
To show the chicas how being healthy means taking care of ourselves in every aspect of life, the girls heard from guest speakers such as EcoRise, a organization that offers grade-school curriculum on environmental issues and GeoFORCE, a UT Austin organization designed to expand knowledge about the Earth.
Jessica Cravens, program manager at EcoRise, led the girls through an in-depth lesson on what processed foods are and how food production has an impact on the environment.
“You are the future,” Cravens told the girls. “By giving you the tools and knowledge you need, we know you are going to be what helps us move forward in making environmental and sustainable changes.”
In addition to developing a healthy relationship with the Earth, the chicas heard from Larissa Davila, a business consultant and podcaster, who spoke to the girls on building strong relationships with girls in their class and women throughout their lives.
“When I was younger, I thought that when I grew up there would be no more competition between girls and I would be a happy camper in life,” Davila said. “Unfortunately, competition happens throughout your life. If you don’t learn how to improve your relationship with other girls you will have a lot of stress that is avoidable and use that energy to create wonderful things for the world.”
To highlight Davila’s speech, the chicas ‘baked’ friendship cookies where each ingredient represented a healthy characteristic of a friendship.
“Try to see the good things in your friends, female teachers, mothers and grandmas,” she said. “Figure out what makes them perfect, magical and powerful. Then try to replicate that so we can make this society a better society.”
To see all the projects the girls created, check out the recap video!
