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Testimonials
PHOTO BY Stephen Martin
VeryWellFit voted Girls Fight Back
2021-2023 Best Online Self-Defense Class for Groups & Organizations!
Kimberly Schrader
Title IX Coordinator
Knox College
“You were graceful and patient, as always - and still brought your enthusiastic and authentic self. Thank you, once again, for an exciting, expert, sensitive, and informed evening of information sharing and skill-building. All of them had great things to say and learned much. One person stayed behind to chat and not only shared a good deal about their experience(s), but also told me they left being very glad they’d come. Thanks again for your critical and life-changing work.”
Lori Newell, MS, HS-BCP, CA
Workplace Violence Prevention & Response Coordinator,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
"Nicole's presentation was remarkable! Her presentation ranked in the category of highest registrants coming in 2nd to our all time high. We have received nothing but positive comments and the employees found the information to be of great value. Our VAL's are looking forward to her training session next week. Nicole is a joy to work with and we look forward to many more future collaborations."
Bishal Adhikari
Student Activities Council
Director of Lecture Programming
Northwest Missouri State University
“Students Fight Back was successful, our students got to learn Badass Basics, and that was very important. I personally liked it when she explained setting up healthy boundaries, when to say no. The audience interaction was great. I will definitely recommend this presentation to my colleagues. The Q&A time was enough and there was great student engagement during Q&A sessions. Lasty, I want to thank Nicole for being kind and humble and teaching something that was necessary for our students.”
Brigette Kidd
"You are doing your passion, and it shows. Thank you so much for the professional self-defense class, as you handled my 'sticker' comments exceptionally. I appreciate having worked with you and participating in your first public class. I have gained tools I can use as I navigate the streets of LA daily and in my international travels. ”
NRPA Attendee
"Nicole was engaging and made me feel empowered to set boundaries for myself both emotionally and physically."
Jennifer Reardon
Western Region Coordinator
Cornell University Extension
“Nicole is a force to be reckoned with! The workshop was terrific! Fabulous! Nicole is an engaging, energetic presenter who provides information any human can use to protect themselves. It was clearly presented with an organized flow and included common language and skills everyone can use. I would recommend this seminar to absolutely everyone.”
"Nicole’s self-defense workshop opened my eyes to the power I have within my own body to fight and protect myself and that is a priceless gift. Thank you so much, Nicole."
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- KAITLIN RODRIGUZ, HOKA
Michelle Paul
Associate Director of Student Affairs
Davenport University
“Nicole's presentation was great. She asked good questions beforehand to understand our population and structure in order to teach relatable material to our student body. She's a great speaker - very enthusiastic, knowledgeable, charismatic, and active.
I love the active participation she brings! No matter the type of student, they always participate."
John Pilmaier
NOVA Conference
“I was at the NOVA Conference and wanted you to know I was blown away by your presentation. Thank you! I am also a survivor of childhood sexual assault by a member of the Catholic clergy. I have been having issues with some family members such as "but they've changed" "but there is a baptism" "but that was a long time ago and they don't do that anymore"...you know where I am going.
Thank you for reminding me that I can say "No" and not second guess myself or feel that I have to make any excuses.”
Jill Henry
Flintridge Prep
Girls Cross Country Coach
“We had an amazing self-defense session at practice on Friday to teach our girls cross-country team some basic safety tactics. The 75-minute session was really well-paced and very digestible, and the trainer, Nicole is amazing: super high energy, easy to work with, very professional. I want her on anyone's radar in case there's an opportunity to bring her into physical education, to work with athletic teams, or to offer something for the general student body. The girls raved about the session, and I hope we can do this again in the future!”
Nikia Acy
Marketing Director
Santa Barbara Young Black Professionals
“It was AMAZING having you host this event. Everyone loved you, your energy, and the skills/tips you provided. I just want to thank you 100 more times!!”
Brenda Bravo
Latinas In Power
Westchester Community College
“We loved it! Nicole was great she was really helpful and the students enjoyed the event as did I. Thank you for working with us! I hope we can have more events together in the future.”
Sarah Cannery
Rise.Run.Retreat Women’s Retreat
“Nicole was fantastic and the presentation went really well. It was great to have such an interactive virtual experience. I’ll be in touch in the coming weeks about a potential partnership for another one of our fall Virtual Retreats–it was great to have Nicole as a guest speaker and we’d love to have her back.”
This session made self-defense seem less intimidating and more accessible and easier to use.
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- ATTENDEE, HOKA
Annie Powell
Spokane Falls Community College
“This should be taught everywhere!”
Des Sedaghat
District B Representative
Los Feliz Neighborhood Council
“All in all it was PERFECT! Nicole is so wonderful and everyone else I heard from loved everything about the webinar as well.”
Student
She Jumps
“Truly appreciated that Nicole grounded us in knowing that we are worth fighting for, our lives our worth fighting for, our bodies are our best tool, to trust our intuition, and whatever we do to stay alive is the right thing. She fit a lot of food for thought for keeping ourselves safe into 1.5 hours.”
Anastasia Allison
Founder, Kula Cloth
“ I have to say that Nicole's class was AMAZING. I had the opportunity to moderate it yesterday and it was engaging, empowering, and impactful. I could sense a noticeable difference in the participants over the course of the hour. Nicole is SUCH A TRUE GIFT to this world - so thank you for giving us the opportunity to share her message with our community. I have never seen so many positive comments at the end of a presentation before - it was really incredible. So, again, thank you!”
Student
Kula Cloth
“Your energy and confidence is infectious. I feel like you gave a piece of it to each of us, lit our candles with your flame, and that we're all walking away more empowered. As someone who usually avoids eye contact and says nothing to people I don't want to interact with, I learned some invaluable things. Recommending to all my friends!”
Jennifer Labate
Director of Title IX & Disability Services
Post University
“I just wanted to tell you how much our faculty, staff and students enjoyed your presentation last night. We greatly appreciated your insight, enthusiasm and humor. It was a pleasure working with you. Thank you so much!”
This training was one of the best I've ever taken. Nicole Snell is an expert in the material and conveys it so well. She is outstanding! I learned so much and hope I can remember all of it. She gives practical tools that can and should be practiced. I often travel with others and can, I think, become complacent. She conveyed how awareness and gut instincts are so important. Thank you.
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- ATTENDEE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA)
Ashley Hoffman
Student Programming Board Chair
University of Minnesota–Crookston
“She was fantastic at engaging students and keeping their attention. Good energy and mixture of activity and lecture. People who we never see at our events came up to us and thanked us for bringing her to campus.”
Becky Wieder
Mother of Lisa Wieder
“I’d like to thank Bree Swartz for participating in Safe Break on March 9, 2016 at the University of Oklahoma. Safe Break was established in 2004 by two sorority sisters to honor the memory of our daughter, Lisa Wieder, who died during Spring Break that year. My husband and I tell Lisa’s story each year at OU during Safe Break, and Bree’s presentation was a wonderful addition to the overall program. Bree did an awesome job. Girls Fight Back is an awesome program and a wonderful way to honor the life of Shannon McNamara. We are thankful to the OU family for honoring our Lisa each year, and we hope we can honor Shannon as well by getting the word out about Girls Fight Back. Thank you again!”
Student Affairs Professional
“Nicole was WONDERFUL. We have a small campus and sometimes our audiences can be small. In the past, this has almost bothered presenters in some way (much more intimate than they are used to, I suppose). Nicole was not bothered at all. She embraced all of the students and made great use of the intimate setting. She is such a dynamic and engaging speaker, and the students really enjoyed her. I cannot praise her enough.”
Indiana Tech
“Students Fight Back was the perfect combination of informative presentation coupled with audience interaction. Nicole did a great job of keeping our students engaged the entire evening! The progression of the presentation from hands-off skills (intuition, awareness, boundary-setting) to basic self-defense moves was terrific. The level of student engagement at the end of the night made it obvious that Nicole’s presentation was very empowering and left the students wanting to learn more. Because of this, we look forward to having Students Fight Back programming on our campus again in the future! “
Sarah Hilston
HACC – York
“I’ve worked in Student Activities for some time now, and Girls Fight Back completely blew me away with their presentation. They were prepared, prompt, engaging, and professional. I haven’t been this impressed with an event in quite some time. Bree was engaging, dynamic, and poised. She connected with our group of students, and kept the presentation fun and interactive.”
Blair Dunlevy
Denison University
“Girls Fight Back was easily the best program I have seen come to Denison since I have been here. It was educational and entertaining. The women who went could not stop talking about it the next day. I will take what I learned from Erin and use it for the rest of my life.”
This empowering session provided insights AND actionable solutions to remain safe, as well as fight for your boundaries and safety, as needed. Highly recommend!
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- WOMEN LEADERS OF LANTHEUS
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