Maine Female Athlete Leadership Conference: 2024 Recap

In September, our 2024 Maine High School Female Athlete Leadership Conference was a ROARING success!! 

Strong Girls United Founder and Executive Director Lani Silversides said it best: “We just had the most amazing conference with participants from across the state of Maine for our Female Athlete Leadership Conference (FALC), where we emphasized mental skills as the foundation for building leadership. As a Maine native, I absolutely love giving back to the state and am so proud of our team for making this event happen. A huge thank you to Saint Joseph's College for their hospitality and to all the coaches and athletes who dedicated their day to spend with us and invest in their growth.”

With 280 female athletes and coaches traveling in from all over the state (up from the 2023 conference, which hosted 200 total attendees), FALC is an opportunity to engage in an enriching experience that lead to connections and growth beyond the playing field. 

This year’s conference featured an action-packed day, including team-building games, mental skills and coaching workshops, AND a keynote speech featuring Maine’s very own Sophia Slovenski. 

The inclusion of team-building activities in this year’s conference grew the opportunity for athletes to learn from each other as well as from our conference leaders. While the athletes were growing together, participating coaches stepped into a session with Brooklyn Raney, a former D1 hockey player, Author, speaker, and facilitator who founded Generation Change, Girls' Leadership Camp and One Trusted Adult. We are so lucky to have Brooklyn leading the charge with our coach participants each year.

The keynote speech by Sophia Slovenski was one for the books. A two-year Americorp VISTA with Strong Girls, Bowdoin and USM Track Alumna, National Champion, 2023 NCAA Top 6 member and finalist for NCAA Woman of the year, Sophia joined us to share her journey through leadership, competition, and walk through some of the mental skills resources she uses regularly in her competitive field. We are so grateful for all of the work Sophia has done with Strong Girls United, and will forever cheer her on as she inspires other strong girls for life. 

With the opportunity to learn, grow, and lead in new settings around both peers and strangers, each year’s participants enter as athletes and coaches, and leave with the skills necessary to lead. And,in order to keep building and developing skills built at the conference, each participant was immediately granted free access to our Foundations platform AND free membership to the Voice In Sport platform as well. 

For information on how to join/register for our 2025 Boston FALC, please click here. Stay tuned via SGUnitedFoundation.org or follow us on Instagram for more information on our future events and programs. 

Special thanks to Lauren Bodwell for the amazing photos from the day, all FALC 2024 participants, and our SG United team for the work behind the scenes to make the day happen.