Since the launch of the Lead Academy last spring, we have loved hearing from coaches, parents, and young female athletes about how our courses have impacted their lives. One of our goals at Lead is to inspire young women to be confident and own who they are as individuals, so when Founder Kara Lynn Joyce received an email from tenth grader Natalie Boorjian about her review of Coach Christen’s Confidence Course, we just had to share the impact she has had on her team and members of her community.  

“During the courses, they give great examples how teams can work together to add positivity and strengthen the overall confidence of the team and also self confidence for the individuals,” Natalie said. “I thought it was the perfect project for this challenging year.”

A sophomore at Mayo High School in Rochester, NY, Natalie has taken Coach Christen’s advice to heart by implementing concepts she has learned throughout the course to her own personal experiences as an athlete. Natalie brought “Confidence Nuggets” to her teammates and created “The Bead Project” to increase positivity among her teammates as they approach their championship season. Swimmers are encouraged to build confidence by taking a bead each time they achieve something or take steps toward a goal in practice or anywhere else. The beads can be added to a bracelet as a reminder of their hard work. 

Natalie’s coaches and teammates describe her as a role model and leader. She strongly believes that confidence is what makes a person successful and wants her teammates to feel just as empowered as she is as a female athlete. You can learn more about Natalie’s impact here.

With twenty-two years of coaching and working one on one with some of the top athletes in the world, Coach Christen speaks to female athletes about REAL Confidence. She was the head coach of swimming at the University of Miami and in 2015, she worked with a group of Olympians and National Team members as they prepared for the 2016 Olympic Trials and Olympic Games. She also speaks to teams, athletes, women’s organizations and women in business about handling those "pressure to perform" moments and building REAL Confidence. Christen believes that because “life outside of sport affects sport,” her course “focuses on growth and maturity, character development, and life skills” to teach young women that they are worthy of success. 

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