November 25, 2024 • 14 mins
There are close to 1,700 public schools in NYC today, yet only four of those are public all-girls schools. One of them, soon to open, will wear it’s identity as a feminist college preparatory school on it’s sleeve. Our guest is Christina Yi-Perry, founder and executive director of Kwenda Collegiate Girls School, a tuition-free public charter school for girls and gender-expansive youth, opening in 2025. For more, visit kwendaschools.org.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to get connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven Light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome then, thanks for listening to get connected. You know,
they were close to seventeen hundred public schools in New
York City, and only four of those are public all
girls schools. One of them, soon to open, though, will
wear its identity as a feminist college preparatory school on
its sleeve. Our guest is Christina Ye Perry, founder and
executive director of Quenda Collegiate Girls' School, a tuition free
(00:36):
public charter school for girls and gender expansive youth, opening
in twenty twenty five. Christina Ye Perry, thank you for
being on the show.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You can find out more at Quendaschools dot org. It's
Quenda with a K kwe Nda Schools dot org. Let's
just start with a name. That name is memorable. Where
does Quenda come from, Christina.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yeah, no, thank you for that. So Quenda actually means
go in Swahili. It's a nod to our core belief
that every girl has a powerful voice and should decide
for herself, where she goes in life, where she ends up.
It's just the role of a school to help her
get there.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
So your vision for the school, What does it mean
to be a feminist college preparatory school.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yeah, so we're really proud of that title for us.
We believe one way that we can show our love
as educators is by giving our kids choice. So by
the time that our girls leave us in eighth grade,
we want them to have every option in life, whether
they choose to go to a college preparatory high school
and enroll in a four year university two or four
(01:42):
year university after that, or if they decide to take
another path, they will have that option because of the
rigor of the education they received at Quenda upon leaving us.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So that's the college part.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
On the feminist side of things, we believe that our
girl experience life differently because of gender right, that there
are inequities in our society that they will have to
navigate simply because they are a girl. And at Quendo
we don't stray away from that fact. We want our
(02:15):
girls to go eyes wide open into the world. We
see a number of social justice public schools cropping up
across the city. You can think of a feminist public
school as one that does take a social justice stance,
but through the lens of gender. So always thinking about
what are the inequities that folks might see according to gender,
(02:38):
and how do we remove those barriers so that all
of us can thrive.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
At the educational level some of those barriers. I was
just reading something before we started talking about how New
York City has more gender specific schools than most other
large school districts. I think it's seventeen percent of New
York City students go to school in a girls only,
boys only something like that type of school Los Angeles
four percent. So what are we addressing or trying to
(03:06):
get to in New York that is not happening somewhere else.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, great point. So for us, it really is about access.
Single gender schools have always been accessible to New York
City's most affluent families, and there's a really story tradition
of access to those schools. Our own Kirsten Jillibrand, for instance,
is alumni of a girls' school further upstate. But if
(03:31):
you look at the average median tuitions of those institutions
in Manhattan, they can be anywhere from fifty five to
sixty five thousand dollars a year beginning in kindergarten, and
that's not accessible for all families. If you look at Brooklyn,
the city's most populous borough, right now, there's one public
girls elementary school and all the borough and they have
(03:54):
a waiting list every year at kindergarten in first grade,
right and so Quenda sought to open because of that disparity.
There is such a rich, deep story history of girls'
schools in the city, and we think all families, regardless
of income, should have access to those.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So what is your background, Christina, and how much of
this initiatives come from your own experience as a student
here or an educator.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I appreciate the question.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
I've spent my whole career as an educator, started teaching
as a special education teacher just outside city of Atlanta,
many many moons ago at this point, and have worn
a number of hats in the education feel, whether that
be special education teacher, general education teacher, school leader, and
now a school founder. Growing up, I often was the
(04:44):
only kid of color in a lot of my classes
and didn't necessarily see myself or my family reflected back
to me in the curriculum that I had access day
to day, and so I think a piece of that does.
I think a piece of that does affect Quenda. Impact
Quenda in that we want to make sure that our
girls see themselves in the curriculum every single day. Of course,
(05:07):
they have the opportunity to learn across lines of difference
and learn about cultures that might be different from their own,
but they also have ample opportunity to see themselves, see
the traditions of their families and their cultures reflected back
to them. That's really important to us at our school.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Our guest is Christina Ye Perry, founder and executive director
of Quenda Collegiate Girls' School, a tuition free public charter
school for girls and gender expansive youth opening in twenty
twenty five. You can find out more at Quindasschools dot org.
You're listening to get connected on one oh six point seven.
Let Fmimina del Rio. We haven't even talked about the location,
(05:42):
the grades location. You want to give us the nuts
and bolts before we move.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Forward, Yes, I'd love to. So.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
We are opening in Flatbush. We are right in the
heart of Flatbush off of Church Avenue, will open in
August twenty twenty five to grades K and one, and
we'll add a grade every year until we get to
eighth grade, so.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
You'll serve up to eighth grade. How many students do
you expect to serve once you make it to eighth grade.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Yeah, full enrollment will be at four hundred and eighty
six students, so just under five hundred. We'll open with
one hundred and eight students across grades K and one
next year.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So applications are open right now. Of course you can
find out more on the website. Is it a lottery system?
How does the application process work?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah? So Quenda is a public charter school.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
There's no admissions test to get in, no fees, nothing
like that. If we receive more applications than there are seats,
so just shared, we'll have one hundred and eight seats.
If we get one hundred and nine applications, then we're
required by law to do a public lottery. So we
imagine the way that our applications are currently tracking that
we will hold a lottery in April for our founding class.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So a little bit into the politics of charter schools
in New York. This was a school that was approved
in twenty nineteen, but it's just opening now. Can you
talk about that delay and how Quinna comes out of that.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Yeah, I appreciate the question because it's a big part
of our origin story. So you're exactly right. We were
initially approved in twenty nineteen. At that time, the city
had hit its charter cap so in the state of
New York there is a limit on how many charter
schools can exist within the state, and an even tighter
limit on how many can exist within New York City.
(07:30):
While we went through the rigorous process with the state
for state approval and we were successful in pulling that
approval down, there were no charters left in New York City,
and so we were put on an indefinite wait list.
In one hand, we had the state saying, you have
this strong school model that we know will have positive
(07:50):
impact for families, and on the other we had what,
for a lot of us, felt like an arbitrary political
cap that kept us from opening. And so we had
a number of families who had kindergarteners and first graders
who were excited for us to open in twenty nineteen
who did not have the opportunity to come to our school,
and that's why we're even more grateful now to be
(08:11):
able to open next fall and open our doors to
the families that we know. I think that all girls
public school education is the best for their child.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
So in that six year gap, when you're waiting to
debut your school, what is going on behind the scenes,
how are you speaking with the community and engaging with people,
keeping the interest and also maybe evolving what you had planned.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Yeah, so we prior to open, excuse me, prior to
our initial approval, had started what we called the Amplify
Her Voice Initiative. It really was a massive listening tour
where we were talking to young people, girls families all
across Brooklyn to hear what was working and not working
for girls in public education in the city. This predated
(08:59):
the COVID pandemic. So in March twenty nineteen we got
our approval, we found out that we would be waitlisted.
We had initially intended just to continue to do kind
of on the outskirts of the work, some additional listening,
But then COVID happened, and the way that we went
to school and the way that we learned was dramatically
(09:21):
flipped on its head at that time, I went back
into the classroom as a teacher to understand what teachers
and kids were experiencing firsthand. But our founding team doubled
down on our listening. I think COVID presented many, many
challenges and presented an opportunity for us to do school differently,
and we wanted to hear in this time of change,
(09:46):
what was working for families and what wasn't.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
So we've continued that work since twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
A lot of what we learned during the pandemic and
after schools came back from quarantine serves as the foundation
for how will approach school. And so you know, we're
grateful to the families that spent time with us, sharing
their stories, sharing their experiences, because hopefully it will be
for the betterment of our girls at Quinda.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Can you talk about one of those things that you
learned that will be implemented when the school opens.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
For sure, So social emotional learning or this idea that
you know, kids have deep emotional lives that need to
be tended to and need to Kids need to grow
their own muscles around emotional resilience, emotional restraint, these types
of things post quarantine We did a number of focus groups,
(10:41):
and we were averaging anywhere between eighty five to ninety
five percent of families saying that was the number one
thing they were looking for as their kids returned to school.
Our schools spending time with kids processing emotions that may
have resulted from quarantine. Are we intentionally helping kids who
(11:02):
may have missed up to two years of in school
in person school time, in building connections in person with
other classmates, in navigating confrontation that is bound to arise
when you're at school, right? Are we helping support kids
as much in that realm as we are in reading,
in math, and in science. So we have adopted an
(11:27):
approach to social emotional learning called responsive Classroom that kicks
off every day with a morning meeting where kids do
just that. They check in on how they're showing up
emotionally at school. There's opportunities to celebrate each other. There
are differences in the classroom, there's opportunities to address those.
And so we heard that loud and clear coming out
(11:49):
of the pandemic and are really excited to get that
work kicked off next school year.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And along with that, those conversations you had with parents
about what girls were not able to achieve or not
able to discover in a typical classroom. What do you
think or what do you hope will be more attainable
for them at this particular school designed exclusively for children
who identifies female.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
I think one thing that we often take a take
for granted is just access to leadership. We want to
make sure that our girls at Quenda see themselves as
leaders in whatever respective field they need to go into,
right and so this belief that girls simply aren't good
(12:34):
at math or are not good at engineering won't exist
at GWENDA.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Everywhere they look, the president of.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
The math club, the ambassadors for engineering in our Steam
program will all be young women, right, and we hope
to ensure that our girls don't feel held back by
societal stereotypes around gender.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
It will be a lot of hard work.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
But we think that our model, and borrowing what we've
heard from families from researching best practices across the country,
we'll do just that.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So applications are now open for kindergarten through first grade.
The first semester begins next fall twenty twenty five. In
the interim, what are you working on and what would
you like to sort of say, as your parting thoughts.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
We are working on a number of things, ranging from
making sure our building is ready for our new students.
We'll have a state of the art makers space engineering
maker space open for our girls on day one, so
we're doing a lot of a lot of work around
facilities renovation. Now we're hiring teachers. So the incoming class
(13:42):
of our founding team is currently being vetted and selected,
and we're welcoming families. Applications are open and we are
more than happy to talk through with families what they
can expect at our school because they can expect for
their daughter, and really encourage folks to reach out that
(14:02):
they have questions.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It's been a long time coming. I wish you the
best with it. You can find out more at Quenduschools
dot org, kwe n d A Schools dot org. Our
guest is founder and executive director, Christinay Perry. Thank you
for being on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Thank you, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one oh six point seven Light FM. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it. Visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one oh six to seven lightfm
dot com. Thanks for listening.
Welcome to get connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven Light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome then, thanks for listening to get connected. You know,
they were close to seventeen hundred public schools in New
York City, and only four of those are public all
girls schools. One of them, soon to open, though, will
wear its identity as a feminist college preparatory school on
its sleeve. Our guest is Christina Ye Perry, founder and
executive director of Quenda Collegiate Girls' School, a tuition free
(00:36):
public charter school for girls and gender expansive youth, opening
in twenty twenty five. Christina Ye Perry, thank you for
being on the show.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You can find out more at Quendaschools dot org. It's
Quenda with a K kwe Nda Schools dot org. Let's
just start with a name. That name is memorable. Where
does Quenda come from, Christina.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yeah, no, thank you for that. So Quenda actually means
go in Swahili. It's a nod to our core belief
that every girl has a powerful voice and should decide
for herself, where she goes in life, where she ends up.
It's just the role of a school to help her
get there.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
So your vision for the school, What does it mean
to be a feminist college preparatory school.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yeah, so we're really proud of that title for us.
We believe one way that we can show our love
as educators is by giving our kids choice. So by
the time that our girls leave us in eighth grade,
we want them to have every option in life, whether
they choose to go to a college preparatory high school
and enroll in a four year university two or four
(01:42):
year university after that, or if they decide to take
another path, they will have that option because of the
rigor of the education they received at Quenda upon leaving us.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So that's the college part.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
On the feminist side of things, we believe that our
girl experience life differently because of gender right, that there
are inequities in our society that they will have to
navigate simply because they are a girl. And at Quendo
we don't stray away from that fact. We want our
(02:15):
girls to go eyes wide open into the world. We
see a number of social justice public schools cropping up
across the city. You can think of a feminist public
school as one that does take a social justice stance,
but through the lens of gender. So always thinking about
what are the inequities that folks might see according to gender,
(02:38):
and how do we remove those barriers so that all
of us can thrive.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
At the educational level some of those barriers. I was
just reading something before we started talking about how New
York City has more gender specific schools than most other
large school districts. I think it's seventeen percent of New
York City students go to school in a girls only,
boys only something like that type of school Los Angeles
four percent. So what are we addressing or trying to
(03:06):
get to in New York that is not happening somewhere else.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, great point. So for us, it really is about access.
Single gender schools have always been accessible to New York
City's most affluent families, and there's a really story tradition
of access to those schools. Our own Kirsten Jillibrand, for instance,
is alumni of a girls' school further upstate. But if
(03:31):
you look at the average median tuitions of those institutions
in Manhattan, they can be anywhere from fifty five to
sixty five thousand dollars a year beginning in kindergarten, and
that's not accessible for all families. If you look at Brooklyn,
the city's most populous borough, right now, there's one public
girls elementary school and all the borough and they have
(03:54):
a waiting list every year at kindergarten in first grade,
right and so Quenda sought to open because of that disparity.
There is such a rich, deep story history of girls'
schools in the city, and we think all families, regardless
of income, should have access to those.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So what is your background, Christina, and how much of
this initiatives come from your own experience as a student
here or an educator.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I appreciate the question.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
I've spent my whole career as an educator, started teaching
as a special education teacher just outside city of Atlanta,
many many moons ago at this point, and have worn
a number of hats in the education feel, whether that
be special education teacher, general education teacher, school leader, and
now a school founder. Growing up, I often was the
(04:44):
only kid of color in a lot of my classes
and didn't necessarily see myself or my family reflected back
to me in the curriculum that I had access day
to day, and so I think a piece of that does.
I think a piece of that does affect Quenda. Impact
Quenda in that we want to make sure that our
girls see themselves in the curriculum every single day. Of course,
(05:07):
they have the opportunity to learn across lines of difference
and learn about cultures that might be different from their own,
but they also have ample opportunity to see themselves, see
the traditions of their families and their cultures reflected back
to them. That's really important to us at our school.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Our guest is Christina Ye Perry, founder and executive director
of Quenda Collegiate Girls' School, a tuition free public charter
school for girls and gender expansive youth opening in twenty
twenty five. You can find out more at Quindasschools dot org.
You're listening to get connected on one oh six point seven.
Let Fmimina del Rio. We haven't even talked about the location,
(05:42):
the grades location. You want to give us the nuts
and bolts before we move.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Forward, Yes, I'd love to. So.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
We are opening in Flatbush. We are right in the
heart of Flatbush off of Church Avenue, will open in
August twenty twenty five to grades K and one, and
we'll add a grade every year until we get to
eighth grade, so.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
You'll serve up to eighth grade. How many students do
you expect to serve once you make it to eighth grade.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Yeah, full enrollment will be at four hundred and eighty
six students, so just under five hundred. We'll open with
one hundred and eight students across grades K and one
next year.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So applications are open right now. Of course you can
find out more on the website. Is it a lottery system?
How does the application process work?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah? So Quenda is a public charter school.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
There's no admissions test to get in, no fees, nothing
like that. If we receive more applications than there are seats,
so just shared, we'll have one hundred and eight seats.
If we get one hundred and nine applications, then we're
required by law to do a public lottery. So we
imagine the way that our applications are currently tracking that
we will hold a lottery in April for our founding class.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So a little bit into the politics of charter schools
in New York. This was a school that was approved
in twenty nineteen, but it's just opening now. Can you
talk about that delay and how Quinna comes out of that.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Yeah, I appreciate the question because it's a big part
of our origin story. So you're exactly right. We were
initially approved in twenty nineteen. At that time, the city
had hit its charter cap so in the state of
New York there is a limit on how many charter
schools can exist within the state, and an even tighter
limit on how many can exist within New York City.
(07:30):
While we went through the rigorous process with the state
for state approval and we were successful in pulling that
approval down, there were no charters left in New York City,
and so we were put on an indefinite wait list.
In one hand, we had the state saying, you have
this strong school model that we know will have positive
(07:50):
impact for families, and on the other we had what,
for a lot of us, felt like an arbitrary political
cap that kept us from opening. And so we had
a number of families who had kindergarteners and first graders
who were excited for us to open in twenty nineteen
who did not have the opportunity to come to our school,
and that's why we're even more grateful now to be
(08:11):
able to open next fall and open our doors to
the families that we know. I think that all girls
public school education is the best for their child.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
So in that six year gap, when you're waiting to
debut your school, what is going on behind the scenes,
how are you speaking with the community and engaging with people,
keeping the interest and also maybe evolving what you had planned.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Yeah, so we prior to open, excuse me, prior to
our initial approval, had started what we called the Amplify
Her Voice Initiative. It really was a massive listening tour
where we were talking to young people, girls families all
across Brooklyn to hear what was working and not working
for girls in public education in the city. This predated
(08:59):
the COVID pandemic. So in March twenty nineteen we got
our approval, we found out that we would be waitlisted.
We had initially intended just to continue to do kind
of on the outskirts of the work, some additional listening,
But then COVID happened, and the way that we went
to school and the way that we learned was dramatically
(09:21):
flipped on its head at that time, I went back
into the classroom as a teacher to understand what teachers
and kids were experiencing firsthand. But our founding team doubled
down on our listening. I think COVID presented many, many
challenges and presented an opportunity for us to do school differently,
and we wanted to hear in this time of change,
(09:46):
what was working for families and what wasn't.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
So we've continued that work since twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
A lot of what we learned during the pandemic and
after schools came back from quarantine serves as the foundation
for how will approach school. And so you know, we're
grateful to the families that spent time with us, sharing
their stories, sharing their experiences, because hopefully it will be
for the betterment of our girls at Quinda.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Can you talk about one of those things that you
learned that will be implemented when the school opens.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
For sure, So social emotional learning or this idea that
you know, kids have deep emotional lives that need to
be tended to and need to Kids need to grow
their own muscles around emotional resilience, emotional restraint, these types
of things post quarantine We did a number of focus groups,
(10:41):
and we were averaging anywhere between eighty five to ninety
five percent of families saying that was the number one
thing they were looking for as their kids returned to school.
Our schools spending time with kids processing emotions that may
have resulted from quarantine. Are we intentionally helping kids who
(11:02):
may have missed up to two years of in school
in person school time, in building connections in person with
other classmates, in navigating confrontation that is bound to arise
when you're at school, right? Are we helping support kids
as much in that realm as we are in reading,
in math, and in science. So we have adopted an
(11:27):
approach to social emotional learning called responsive Classroom that kicks
off every day with a morning meeting where kids do
just that. They check in on how they're showing up
emotionally at school. There's opportunities to celebrate each other. There
are differences in the classroom, there's opportunities to address those.
And so we heard that loud and clear coming out
(11:49):
of the pandemic and are really excited to get that
work kicked off next school year.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And along with that, those conversations you had with parents
about what girls were not able to achieve or not
able to discover in a typical classroom. What do you
think or what do you hope will be more attainable
for them at this particular school designed exclusively for children
who identifies female.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
I think one thing that we often take a take
for granted is just access to leadership. We want to
make sure that our girls at Quenda see themselves as
leaders in whatever respective field they need to go into,
right and so this belief that girls simply aren't good
(12:34):
at math or are not good at engineering won't exist
at GWENDA.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Everywhere they look, the president of.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
The math club, the ambassadors for engineering in our Steam
program will all be young women, right, and we hope
to ensure that our girls don't feel held back by
societal stereotypes around gender.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
It will be a lot of hard work.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
But we think that our model, and borrowing what we've
heard from families from researching best practices across the country,
we'll do just that.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So applications are now open for kindergarten through first grade.
The first semester begins next fall twenty twenty five. In
the interim, what are you working on and what would
you like to sort of say, as your parting thoughts.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
We are working on a number of things, ranging from
making sure our building is ready for our new students.
We'll have a state of the art makers space engineering
maker space open for our girls on day one, so
we're doing a lot of a lot of work around
facilities renovation. Now we're hiring teachers. So the incoming class
(13:42):
of our founding team is currently being vetted and selected,
and we're welcoming families. Applications are open and we are
more than happy to talk through with families what they
can expect at our school because they can expect for
their daughter, and really encourage folks to reach out that
(14:02):
they have questions.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It's been a long time coming. I wish you the
best with it. You can find out more at Quenduschools
dot org, kwe n d A Schools dot org. Our
guest is founder and executive director, Christinay Perry. Thank you
for being on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Thank you, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one oh six point seven Light FM. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it. Visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one oh six to seven lightfm
dot com. Thanks for listening.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!