SAYA Young Women Discuss Self-Confidence

This past December, SAYA’s Young Women’s Leadership spent a session talking with Gitanjali Pinto Faleiro, a South Asian lawyer.

”We were able to have an informal conversation with Gitanjali, making the discussion more personal and connective. We asked her a lot of questions regarding her journey as a woman of color stepping into an entirely new country and leaving her family behind to start a new life for herself. 

One tip that Gitanjali gave us is that in order to do really well, it is essential to remain organized and compartmentalize - set priorities and a time table for everything that you do. In addition to education, we were able to discuss more personal topics such as discrimination and self-confidence. I asked how she deals with microaggressions in her workplace, and she shared her advice: don’t overreact. If someone makes a comment about you, act as nicely as you can towards them and ask them what they meant. 

Toward the end of the session, we talked about self-confidence, how we all want to be like someone else and we constantly compare ourselves to others. But we must remember that there are others who admire how we are in the world, so we should accept and love ourselves. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our session with Gitanjali and look forward to having more discussions like this.”
- Diya