Nutrition has played an important role for Oriella Justin most of her life. As a young woman, she struggled with her eating habits and sensitivities.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she took the time to reflect upon herself and make healthy changes in her lifestyle. As she began to get healthier, it morphed to a point which made her decide to become a Health and Wellness coach.
“I ended up taking my time to really reflect on myself and I realized it was the time to eat better, work out. Once I graduated college with my first degree, my parents asked me ‘Ok, what is your plan, what are you going to do now?’ That’s when I realized that the future is now and I stepped into becoming a Health and Wellness,” Oriella explains.
In order to take this step in her life, Oriella had to look for a way to get this dream moving. She was working on her master’s degree and the only money that came in was for her to be able to support herself with the basic necessities. A friend who has been in her life since she was in middle school, suggested that she try the JVS SoCal WoMentoring program.
Her sister was a client who was mentored to get her law practice started and she thought it was worth a try. After the interview process, Oriella was assigned a mentor that helped her get started into how to establish a Health and Wellness coaching business.
“I was able to learn through my mentor as a coach and she didn’t really do it in a way of how to be a coach, she did it in a way of helping me build my coaching business, which was really awesome,” explains Oriella.
Oriella’s mentor was a JVS SoCal client herself, which helped her get a perspective on what the program was able to do for others. The WoMentoring program is a six-month career development program that offers women with defined career objectives the unique opportunity to be paired with a mentor who has an established career in the participant’s chosen field. Each mentee works closely with her mentor and the WoMentoring staff to reach individually designed career goals.
One of the highlights of her mentorship was the advice that in order to become a better coach, she had to be coached by one of her future peers to know the ins and outs of the business opportunity she was pursuing. “She took a lot of pressure off me rather than grab straws and figure it out on YouTube and anything. She was the basis on how to point myself in the direction that I needed to go but also allowed me to figure it out on my own.”
She again turned to Diane Shapiro, director of the Career Development Programs at JVS So Cal, who guided her how to apply for a WLN Impact Grant that eventually paid for her to be coached by an established professional.
Oriella eventually got the grant and was able to connect with Pamela, a wellness coach, who guided her through a 12-week program to achieve her goal.
“She’s been meeting with me once a week and every time it is basically focused on helping me progress as an individual, that’s the whole point of having a Health and Wellness Coach,” adds Oriella. “She’s not here to be like a therapist. You are here to pinpoint different parts of life that they can progress in, give them tools.”
Oriella earned her certification in April, which combined with her Master’s in Integrated Dysfunctional Nutrition, will be the stepping stone to get her business moving ahead. She will never forget that it was the WoMentoring program that made this possible.
“They put a lot of effort into really helping you succeed. It’s really impossible to not succeed in this type of environment and just to have good connections with people around you like that. I think anybody who really wants to help themselves could succeed with this type of program,” concluded Oriella.
If you’re inspired by Oriella’s story and would like to help another woman realize her dreams, please donate today.