Speaker: Kathleen Hassan
Article by: Alora, Julia, and Alem Date of presentation: 10/16/18 Leadership: This was what the conference was centered around. It was made to empower girls and show them they were capable of anything they set their mind too. Kathleen Hassan talked about respecting ourselves and being confident in who we are. About Kathleen When Kathleen was only ten years old, her father died making her mom a widow with five kids. Kathleen’s mom was often embarrassed to be seen with her because Kathy had a very bubbly personality and that humiliated her mom. This led in to a rocky relationship between the two of them. At the age of four, Kathleen raised and donated five dollars (worth about 40 dollars today) to the local hospital and her deed ended up in a newspaper. Kathleen said that she always felt the urge to inspire, and she believed that helping people was something she would want to pursue. Six years after the death of Kathy’s dad died, her mom needed open heart surgery. On the day her mom went into the hospital, Kathy asked her mom to go to a friends house. Kathy’s mom responded with something like, “No, I don’t want to be here and have to worry about where my kids are!” Kathleen was mad, but went home like she was told. The next day Kathy’s mom died during open heart surgery. Kathy and her siblings were devastated but Kathy remained mad at her mom because they got in a fight before her mom died. Kathy became very depressed and turned to drugs and alcohol to help “numb” the pain. She often went to parties and hung out with the wrong group of people as a way of coping. Then, when she was 18 she had her first boyfriend but ended up getting pregnant. She was told to pick between the guy or the baby and desperately she chose the guy. This, Kathleen said, had haunted her for a long time, and to this day still does. Around the age of 20, Kathleen had her “breakthrough to brave,” in which she realized she was making bad decisions and thought it was time to turn her life around. She mentioned that she forgave her mom for not always being there for her, as part of her breakthrough. Since then, she has become 15 years sober and has been happily married (for 35 years) with two sons, one of which is a former baseball player for the Red Socks and the other an app designer. Kathleen became a Christian and officiated at her nephew’s wedding. She also recently became a grandma to her granddaughter, Gia. She became a life coach in order to inspire people with her story, and help create more inspiring stories like hers. ___________________________________________________ Stress and Anxiety According to research, 50% of elementary girls, 60% of middle school girls, and 80% of high school girls face stress and anxiety on a daily basis. Everyone deal with stress differently but some people turn to the wrong coping strategies, and this is a reason why Kathleen made this presentation for girls. L.E.A.D. L for Love In her presentation, Kathleen went on to to explain her acronym for LEAD. L stands for love. We need to love ourselves in order to be confident. We need to understand that we are made unique and perfect and that we don’t have to change ourselves to fit in. Kathy says if we treat ourselves better we will be happier and have less stress about what we look like. E for Empathy The next letter in L.E.A.D, E, stands for Empathy. Kathleen stressed that a leader needs to know how to empathise with other people’s problems in order to help them get better, and let them know that someone understands what’s happening. To empathize with someone means that you are able to put yourself in their shoes. A for acceptance The third letter for this acronym is A. A stands for acceptance, and you can not become a confident leader if you first can not accept yourself. Acceptance is important because you will not only need to accept yourself and all your faults, but you have to accept others to become a leader to all. D for Discipline D for discipline means we have to understand when we are turning to the wrong things for coping and discipline ourselves. If you are able to notice your mistakes and fix them like Kathy did then you are off to a great start. This is how a good leader is able to make correct decisions confidently. ___________________________________________________ When the students from York College came out to talk they each shared a story of their breakthrough to brave moment. Then they taught us a dance to the song “Sorry, Not Sorry” by Demi Lovato. Here’s a link to the video. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gpVdjU7uS0PDMO-_bKsU5Lz4R3O7K2yL The thing that stood out to us most during the college students’ presentation was a quote from Tori Wantz. Click here to view the video of her quote: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Au4fxPajNJLBihLrmodDlO-XBMpDHdsu ___________________________________________________ Contact Kathy Checkout Kathy’s instagram- @kathleenhassan or go to her website- www.KathleenHassan.com/breakthrough Other Links Here are another link showing excitement at the presentation
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