“BRAVERY | TAKING ACTION WHEN YOU ARE AFRAID” is what the Brave Enterprises website tells any boy or girl who decides to take the plunge and work with them to become braver. On Fri. May 3, freshmen came together to overcome their fears and negative thoughts in a session with BRAVE.

The session was led by Crista Samaras, the CEO of the business, and Jasmine Docal. Samaras had worked with female lacrosse players to become brave on and off the field; however, she realized that she did not want to work only with that group anymore.

“I want to help people do hard stuff,” she said, “When I led the team from a #33 national ranking to a #13 national ranking in three months, I realized that I needed to do bravery training, not just for young women, but for everyone.”

Samaras had been through a lot to influence her to create this business. She was one of the best lacrosse players the world, but through her journey, she had also was a Princeton dropout. Through this experience, she was forced to be brave and face the reality of getting back on on the field.  

“Getting back on track was horrible, hard, terrible, and probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, Samaras said. “But I’m so glad I was brave enough to do it because now I’m here.”

During the session, the freshmen went through many different activities to try to battle negative thoughts about themselves, their worst fears, and other diminishing feelings and replace them with the bravery to achieve their goals. At multiple points of the session, the class of 2022 was asked to fill out questions on a sheet they were given. These questions ultimately led to them being able to create and confidently express their “BRAVE Pitch.”

Mr. Sheehan invited BRAVE to perform the session with the freshmen and was very excited about the training.

“I think the work that Brave does is really important,” he said. “I think the idea of giving [young women] an opportunity to one: see the importance of brave action; and two: seeing brave action in an environment that is vulnerable and trustworthy.”

Sheehan wanted the students to take away multiple things from the session such as having “some energy” and “some change in pace from what a different learning environment looks like.”

“More than anything, I want any sort of programming to have lasting value,” he said.

Sheehan’s hopes were fulfilled as multiple freshmen took with them a newfound realization of the importance of bravery and confidence.

Freshman Erin Fitzgerald said that she felt more confident in her abilities to socialize with others.

“I really took away that confidence comes from within and you have to believe in yourself to achieve what you’re striving for,” she said.

Fitzgerald really liked Brave because she “got to see classmates supporting other classmates and it was very empowering.”  

Freshman Hannah Schulden also felt overall more confident about herself.

“I really liked it because I feel like all of us really got together to build each other up and it was an overall good experience,” she said.   

Many freshmen were open to have another session saying that it was “really fun” and made them feel “very comfortable and out there”.

“They taught us all how to love ourselves a little bit more and how to be more confident and sure of ourselves,” said Schulden, “and I think that’s something that everyone needs at some point in their lives.”