Finding Family: Yuriko Curiel’s Journey from Rejection to Resilience

July 15, 2025 | By NRCF Vol­un­teer

Yuriko Curiel must be a remark­ably orga­nized person—she jug­gles mul­ti­ple roles with grace, mak­ing com­plex chal­lenges look effort­less.

“I am a first-gen­er­a­tion queer Lati­na who grew up in some of the tough­est neigh­bor­hoods in Los Ange­les,” Yuriko reflects. “My fam­i­ly strug­gled finan­cial­ly, and as the daugh­ter of immi­grants, we had a very hum­ble upbring­ing. I decid­ed I want­ed to change that tra­jec­to­ry through high­er edu­ca­tion.”

Her edu­ca­tion­al jour­ney began at San Bernardi­no Val­ley Col­lege, where she majored in psy­chol­o­gy before trans­fer­ring to Cal State San Bernardi­no. Today, she’s pur­su­ing her mar­riage and fam­i­ly ther­a­pist degree at Pep­per­dine Uni­ver­si­ty, dri­ven by a clear mis­sion: work­ing with tra­di­tion­al­ly mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties, focus­ing on trau­ma-informed prac­tices for jus­tice-impact­ed indi­vid­u­als and fos­ter care chil­dren.

Per­son­al Chal­lenges, Pro­fes­sion­al Pur­pose

As a moth­er of two chil­dren on the autism spec­trum and a mem­ber of the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty, Yuriko’s per­son­al expe­ri­ences deeply inform her pro­fes­sion­al goals. Her com­ing-out sto­ry reveals moments of both heart­break and heal­ing.

“When I ini­tial­ly came out to my par­ents, I did­n’t receive support—I was reject­ed by my fam­i­ly,” she remem­bers. “Giv­en their con­ser­v­a­tive reli­gious back­ground, it was an incred­i­bly dif­fi­cult process. Over the years, rather than com­ing to accept it, they’ve cho­sen to pre­tend it nev­er hap­pened, sweep­ing it under the rug, which is some­how worse. I’ve had to grieve that loss and find accep­tance on my own terms.”

Despite this painful rejec­tion, Yuriko has built some­thing beau­ti­ful from the ash­es. “I’m for­tu­nate to have an incred­i­ble cho­sen fam­i­ly. My part­ner has been instru­men­tal in my heal­ing, and along with amaz­ing col­leagues, I now have a new fam­i­ly to rely on. I val­ue that sup­port immense­ly.”

The Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund Con­nec­tion

For Yuriko, vol­un­teer­ing with Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF) rep­re­sents more than service—it’s about cho­sen fam­i­ly. “As a NRCF vol­un­teer, I can con­tin­ue giv­ing back to my fam­i­ly. I say this intentionally—not just my com­mu­ni­ty, but my fam­i­ly, because every­one apply­ing to NRCF becomes part of the fam­i­ly.”

Through review­ing schol­ar­ship essays, Yuriko has gained insight into the young peo­ple NRCF serves. “These appli­cants are incred­i­bly busy with com­mu­ni­ty work, extracur­ric­u­lars, sports and aca­d­e­m­ic clubs. I see all their time and effort invest­ed not only in edu­ca­tion but in pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment too.”

What strikes her most is the depth of need. “The amount of need out there is tremen­dous. This schol­ar­ship could gen­uine­ly change lives—not just finan­cial­ly, but emo­tion­al­ly. We’re liv­ing in a scary cli­mate right now, and the future can feel bleak. But NRCF reminds us that our voic­es are stronger togeth­er. Uni­ty is what mat­ters most.”

Resilience as Resis­tance

Yuriko draws strength from the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty’s his­tor­i­cal resilience. “This fam­i­ly has always found ways to thrive in the face of adver­si­ty, call­ing on that under­ly­ing resilience in all of us. NRCF is very special—it brings me hope. See­ing queer love gives me joy, and queer joy is itself a form of resis­tance. Find­ing moments of joy push­es me for­ward. We can do this, even when it’s hard. Queer peo­ple have always exist­ed, and we’re not going any­where.”

Break­ing Gen­er­a­tional Cycles

As a moth­er, every­thing Yuriko does serves a pur­pose larg­er than her­self. “For my chil­dren, I will offer love and accep­tance for what­ev­er they choose. They have options—they’re not stuck between two worlds, unable to choose how to iden­ti­fy authen­ti­cal­ly.”

Her pas­sion extends to sup­port­ing com­mu­ni­ties that have tra­di­tion­al­ly been over­looked. “Let’s work togeth­er to let peo­ple be them­selves. Give them space. Being queer and Lati­na, I under­stand how deeply cul­ture embeds gen­der norms and roles. Let’s keep push­ing to break those molds. Be your authen­tic self. Find your cho­sen fam­i­ly. Iden­ti­fy the peo­ple who love and accept you for who you are, espe­cial­ly when others—sometimes your fam­i­ly of origin—don’t.”

A Jour­ney of Self-Dis­cov­ery

Yuriko’s own path to authen­tic­i­ty was­n’t straight­for­ward. “We exist despite the fight against us. On the oth­er side of the rain­bow, there is love. Grow­ing up, I always felt dif­fer­ent, but I pushed those feel­ings down because of the cul­ture I was born into. I remem­ber think­ing as a child, ‘Oh no! That’s wrong. I should­n’t be think­ing those things.’ It took me a long time to fig­ure out who I was.”

Her iden­ti­ty evolved with under­stand­ing and com­mu­ni­ty. “In my ear­ly twen­ties, I ini­tial­ly came out as bisex­u­al. As I became more informed and more immersed in my cho­sen fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty, I real­ized that ‘bisex­u­al’ felt out­dat­ed for me per­son­al­ly. It did­n’t align with how I felt inter­nal­ly. Now I iden­ti­fy as queer—that’s what speaks to me. These are my beliefs and my core.”

Full Cir­cle

Yuriko’s choice to study psy­chol­o­gy began with want­i­ng to bet­ter under­stand her old­est son—how he learns, per­ceives the world, and what strate­gies might help him thrive. “I fell in love with the sub­ject mat­ter,” she says. “Now I want to give back because I see the need. I want to make men­tal health sup­port accessible—that’s how I can help cre­ate change for oth­ers too.”

In Yuriko’s sto­ry, we see the pow­er of cho­sen fam­i­ly, the impor­tance of authen­tic self-expres­sion, and the way per­son­al heal­ing can become a foun­da­tion for help­ing oth­ers. Through her work with NRCF and her jour­ney toward becom­ing a ther­a­pist, she’s trans­form­ing her own expe­ri­ences of rejec­tion and strug­gle into tools for lib­er­a­tion and love.

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