________________________________________________

For U.S. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, the path to self-confidence has been a challenging journey. Over the years, she’s learned to manage obstacles and uncertainty, from growing up on the north side of Chicago—where few students looked like her—to becoming the first woman of color ever elected to the Boston City Council and to Congress from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

“There will be moments where you’ll doubt yourself, where you’ll forget how extraordinary you are,” the Congresswoman told Thalia Cruz, a student at Roxbury Community College and a recent alumna of Scholar Athletes—a nonprofit aimed at raising academic outcomes through athletics for youth in Boston, Everett, and Springfield. Pressley made sure to emphasize the value of focusing on yourself and your goals, avoiding comparisons to the performance of others, and “just showing up in the world exactly as you are.”

Pressley credits her success, in part, to her “chosen family and squad,” imparting that “it’s so important that you are prioritizing self-care and wellness, not just so that you can do good work, so that you can be whole.”

To learn more about Scholar Athletes, visit www.wearesa.org