By Daily Press staff
Success is sweet when you’re Maria de de Lourdes “Lulu” Sobrino. Fourteen mentors, teens and staff from St. Joseph Center’s Sisters For Success (SFS) program visited Lulu’s Dessert factory on Oct. 23 and learned the secret for success from Sobrino. Sobrino arrived from Mexico in 1982 and has built from her own kitchen a $15 million-a-year business making and selling 50 different kinds of ready-to-eat low-calorie gelatin desserts.
“Gelatin is consumed by the most vulnerable of our society,” says Sobrino, who serves as chair of the Hispanic/Latin American Council for Business Women’s Network in Washington, D.C.
St. Joseph Center’s SFS mentoring program started at their family center in 1996 and strives to give youth from working poor families a chance to meet and interact with adults who are successful in their careers, and who are positive in their behavior and outlook.
Sisters For Success activities include camping trips, visits to businesses, health talks, volunteering, conferences, and college night, which focuses on college entrance requirements and scholarship resources.
Applications are currently being accepted for volunteer adult mentors to work directly with teens enrolled in this program. The program is looking for success-oriented men and women to mentor boys, 11-14, and girls, 13-17, who will focus on developing good study habits and building self-esteem.
The program requires a commitment of 12-15 hours per month. Fingerprint and drivers license clearance is required.
St. Joseph Center assists more than 7,000 working poor and homeless adults and children, veterans, and seniors each year to achieve self-sufficiency through food distributions, child care, mentoring, and job training. For more information, call (310) 396-6468, ext. 325, or visit www.stjosephctr.org.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 6, 2004. Read the original PDF.