Percilla received the Outstanding Student Award at Maharishi University of Management in the individualized major category.

Women, consciousness, and health
by Maharishi University of Management, Iowa, USA, Achievement
27 August 2015

Growing up in Lost Angeles, Percilla Herrera observed women around her and desired to help them grow healthier and happier. But it wasn’t until she came to Maharishi University of Management (MUM) that she realized she could have a career doing just that.

She already had a good start with a yoga teacher certification from India and numerous credits in women’s studies from El Camino College in Los Angeles. When she learned the Transcendental Meditation technique in 2013, she knew it would help her fulfill her mission. She visited MUM a few months later and applied immediately. 

Her first class at MUM, the Science and Technology of Consciousness, introduced Percilla to Maharishi Vedic Science and she decided to create an individualized major in women, consciousness, and health. “You can apply Maharishi Vedic Science to anything: agriculture, sustainability, and women’s studies,” she said.

During her second semester, she had the opportunity to teach her first class through an internship with the David Lynch Foundation in a Los Angeles high school, where she taught women’s health and yoga asanas to at-risk girls.

Her experience in Los Angeles inspired her to create a Consciousness-Based women’s studies curriculum for high school girls as her senior project. She taught the curriculum at Maharishi School for 10 weeks and her project won second place at the 2015 MUM Knowledge Fair. Percilla also received the Outstanding Student Award in the individualized major category.

Percilla is a former college soccer player, so as her work-study job at MUM she coached soccer for the Maharishi School upper and middle school boys. In addition, she was president of the MUM student club called Wise Women Lead. 

Percilla now works as a Maharishi AyurVeda Wellness Consultant and administrator for the Portland TM program for women. She is also planning to become a teacher of the TM technique and continue to empower women through education and self care. She would also enjoy working with the Global Mother Divine Organization and do research on the benefits of the TM technique on mothers. “TM has helped me become the creator of my own universe and have no fear about the future,” she said. “I know that I love women and want to be working with them.”

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