About Darra
This bio is an excerpt from Latin Magazine Fall 2014 Edition.
Darra, Class of 1981, always knew that she wouldn’t be sticking to the beaten path. A passion for dance during her Latin years developed over time into a commitment to providing wellness services and alternative healing to everyone from celebrities to inner-city public school students.
Similar to Bolewicz, Darra credits her mother for empowering her to explore. Latin opened up a world of opportunities and possibilities. “Latin allowed me to participate in activities I was passionate about, it fostered creativity in me, and it connected me with resources outside of school,” Darra said.
She went on to receive a scholarship to study classical ballet at the University of Illinois and danced in programs at the Roman Opera Ballet in Italy and Hubbard Street Dance.
After college, Darra started an alternative wellness company that delivers acupuncture, massage therapy, hypnotherapy and yoga to spas and other businesses. As she learned about alternative wellness, Darra also realized how meditation practices could enrich what she was doing.
In recent years, she has studied meditation all over the world, including in China and Hawaii and with Native American practitioners.
While in China she noticed the main providers of massage therapy were blind or deaf, and decided to implement The Insight Project through the Lighthouse For The Blind to hire blind therapists and office staff in Chicago.
Darra’s latest venture, The Insight Project for Kids, is a non-profit organization that helps children deal with stress through meditation. The organization considers meditation a tool in battling youth violence, self-harm and other behaviors often resulting from stress. Through Insight, Darra has been working in the Chicago Public Schools since 2005 and a New York public school since 2011 and has served more than 4,500 students.“It is rewarding when students say that they have used their tools to avoid lashing out or hitting an annoying sibling,” Darra said. Her primary goal is to relieve some of the pressure she sees so many young people struggling with. “It is especially wonderful to see them again a year later and the difference in their demeanor and their being. Then I say, ‘Yay it worked!’”
