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2 0 t h r e u n i o nGirls EmpoweredW h i T N E Y P O S T ’ 9 1Whitney Post ’91 came to Noblesas a shy ninth grader in the fallof 1987. She remembers English teacherBill Bussey encouraging her to taketo the morning Assembly stage andperform a Shakespeare soliloquy. “Itwas scary! But I couldn’t turn downthe challenge. It’s funny that this is oneof my enduring memories of Nobles...but it set the stage for learning to takerisks and put myself out there.”A former world champion andOlympic rower, Post is now committedto creating tools and opportunitiesfor girls and women to have positiveself-image. She holds a bachelor’sdegree from Brown University anda master’s in counseling psychologyfrom Lesley University. As a consultant,she has provided wellness trainingworkshops and individual coachingto high school, collegiate and nationalteam athletes, and has designed andimplemented eating-disorder treatmentprograms at Boston hospitals. Over thepast 10 years, Post has run hundreds ofgroups helping women develop healthierrelationships with their bodies.Post currently serves as the directorof the Women’s Sports Foundation’sGoGirlGo! Boston. GoGirlGo! wasfounded in 2001 by Billie Jean King.Upon hearing that only one in threeAmerican girls was physically activeat the time, King raised the question,“What about those other two girls?”GoGirlGo! works across the countryto improve the health of sedentary girlsand to keep girls involved in physicalactivity through education, funding,public awareness and networking. Postbrings to the position her dedicationto the transformative power of sport,and every girl’s right to have accessto it and to a healthy, active life. “Myfavorite part of the work is being outon the fields with the girls who benefitfrom GoGirlGo’s programs,” she says.“I am humbled by their exuberance,athleticism and transformation.”“When I was at Nobles and askedwhat the school motto, spes sibi quisque,meant, I was told it could be looselyinterpreted as ‘paddle your own canoe.’ ”Post says. “I think it is funny that I leftNobles and went on to learn some ofthe greatest life lessons from the sportof rowing. I talk a lot about the notionof self-reliance in my work, where Imake the pitch that a huge part of beingself-reliant is acknowledging thatyou sometimes need help from otherpeople. For many of us, sports taughtus that we rely on ourselves and on ourteammates for success. I want to teachyoung women how to have relationshipsand communities to rely on for the restof their lives. In my work in both thesuburbs and the inner city, I’ve seenover and over again that girls need toknow how to have healthy relationshipswith others. It goes so far in the developmentof a positive self-concept.”Post draws a parallel between lessonslearned through sports and workingwith young women: “Girls are set upto encounter negative self-image andbody image issues in our society, and,by their very nature, eating disordersare isolating. Our job as women is toteach girls strategies to help them copewith body image pressures in a healthyway. I believe self-reliance includes theability to let people know when you arenot doing okay and could use somehelp from those around you.”—Brooke Asnis ’90To learn more about GoGirlGo! visitwww.gogirlgoboston.com.Whitney Post ’9134 l the NobLES Bulletin l Spring 2011