LATINAS GUIDING LATINAS DE UCLA

Mission Statement

In 1987, a group of women from UCLA’s Raza Women created a community outreach program called

Latinas Guiding Latinas (LGL) in order to address the lack of Latinas pursuing higher education.

Because they wished to close the gap between the number of Latinas graduating with a high school

diploma and the number of Latinas obtaining a degree, LGL mentors sought to service the impoverished

and underserved East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights communities.

LGL strives to increase the number of young Latinas and Latinos that graduate high school, a sometimes

daunting task considering that our target populations at Roosevelt and Garfield High Schools have some

of the highest Latino dropout rates among LAUSD schools. For the past twenty-five years, LGL has

successfully mentored students from the aforementioned high schools and also Belvedere Middle and

Kennedy Elementary Schools. As we are no longer partnered with Roosevelt and Garfield High Schools, we have

successfully mentored students from STEM of Boyle Heights and Nava College Preparatory Academy for the past

five years and continue to mentor the students at Kennedy Elementary and Belvedere Middle School.

LGL mentors strive to teach mentees to value themselves and their personal strengths as independent individuals,

therefore empowering the community as a whole. LGL also focuses on ensuring holistic physical and

emotional well being, and aims to empower mentees with tools to embrace and understand their culture and

deflate cultural precepts. Site visits cover topics ranging from self-esteem, self-empowerment, peer pressure,

healthy relationships, physical health and well-being as well as college readiness and academic success.

For further information about LGL, contact us at lgldeucla@gmail.com