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Puki, a 2009 graduate of the MIU Media and Communications program, works for the David Lynch Foundation in one of the most exciting cities in the U.S. She’s currently working in L.A. and is about to move to New York City in a few months.

Puki gave me a run down on what she’s been doing since 2009. A month after she graduated, she went to TM teacher training in Bulgaria. In February, 2010, Puki moved to California to start the first TM Quiet Time program in Los Angeles for the David Lynch Foundation at an organization called “Children of the Night,” a shelter that rescues young girls who have been victims of prostitution. After running a successful TM program there for 3.5 years, her work with this program ended about a year and a half ago due to changes in the organization.

In 2010, Puki also began the first school-wide Quiet Time program in LA at New Village Girls Academy, an all-girls’, publicly-funded charter high school. The school is very small and very innovative, and its student population is mostly Latina. Puki says most of the girls came to this school because they were failed by the traditional education system. Many of the students are either pregnant or parenting; in the foster care system or juvenile justice system; and living in poverty.

Twin students from New Village who learned this year said this about their TM practice:

“Meditation has helped me with stress. It helps keep me calm, relaxed and connected with myself.” -Ashley, 16

“Meditation is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever done. It is very relaxing and peaceful. I love it.” – April, 16

Right now Puki is running the TM Quiet Time program at two very different schools, and goes back and forth between them all day. The other school is a challenging inner city middle school, mostly black, and in a rough neighborhood. The Quiet Time program is in its second year there.

The TM Quiet Time Program extends beyond just teaching TM, the TM teachers are at the schools all day, supporting both the teachers and students, checking TM, and participating in a variety of activities. For example, the TM teachers might join in hikes, wellness activities, school holiday celebrations, cooking classes, tutoring math, or preparing an essay. It is important that the students and staff see them as a supportive part of the school community.

The Quiet Time program is currently running in seven L.A. schools and there are teams of TM teachers who lead two quiet periods a day in urban schools. Everyone in the school participates in the two Quiet Time periods each school day, including students who have not learned TM yet.

A big change is about to happen for Puki. In a few months she’s moving to New York to start a new Quiet Time program in a high school in the Bronx. She said she had already started feeling like it was time for a new adventure when this opportunity came up to take her experience to New York as the site leader for this new Quiet Time location. She is excited but also says that she is bracing herself to miss the L.A. weather (we in Iowa can relate).

Ruthie Hutchings is a contributor the the MUM blogs. She did graduate work in English Literature at Emory University, holds an MA in Professional Writing from Maharishi University, and also does writing and editing for websites, magazines, books, and instructional materials.