Non-Profit Founder Encourages JCCS Students to Take Action

To prepare for spring quarter’s Take Action Jam, students from San Diego SOAR Academy, 37ECB, Lindsay Community School, and North County Tech Academy got to hear an inspiring message from a college student who turned her passion into action.

Lea Nepomuceno, a sophomore at George Washington University, started a non-profit that drives awareness around the lack of proper supplies for incarcerated women and helps provide them with some of these basic needs.

Nepomuceno grew up with family members who are in law enforcement. At 13, she had the chance to speak with a formerly incarcerated person who shared the basics they had lacked in jail: shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, and other essentials. Learning about this made her angry, which sparked her desire to help change the conditions.

“I wanted to humanize the living condition for people behind bars,” she said.

So she started Beauty Beyond Bars, an organization that raises awareness around incarceration and the need for beauty and hygiene accessibility in correctional facilities.

Nepomuceno shared with students how she turned her anger into action by starting the non-profit but told students that a good place to start is finding an existing group that shares the same passion.

“Anger is a sign of passion,” she said. “When you find passion through anger, you can really transform it into meaningful forms of action.”

Nepomuceno also engaged with students, asking them what social issues make them angry that might drive them into action and answered questions like how she started her organization to how she practices self-care while pursuing her passion and attending school.

Every year, students across our Juvenile Court and Community Schools take part in the spring "Take Action" Design Jam, where students are change agents for a cause meaningful to them. The Transformational Leadership and System Support team introduced Nepomuceno to the team, which thought her story would be perfect inspiration in advance of the Take Action Jam.