I looked around the room in that moment and noticed at least a dozen women, including Dales and yours truly, with tears welling in their eyes or streaming down their cheeks.
It was that type of moment that the Bears designed this event for — where young women who are striving to be in positions like Dales or Cronin or Carlson can literally _witness_ that their dreams are plausible. That by taking your own individual path, while mirroring the work ethic those women possess, success as a woman in sports is right in front of you.
"I automatically tried not to cry because they're going to be like, 'girl, you don't know her, you do not know this lady,'" Northwestern graduate student Tyler Williamson said. "But I can just read passion and I can see people that really put in the work. That just struck a chord with me and I could tell she's been doing it for some time.
"It's always good when you see people get recognition. I think that's the thing that I love so much about women. We're all like, 'you deserve it' and it's pats on the back. It's not really competitive. It's more like, 'I see you.'
"And to see that she got seen by male figures that are so high up, I really appreciated that because they care and they care who they employ. To see that they've been watching her from when she first got her job to now, they all knew that she was ready for that moment. So for her to finally get it, I felt that."
It's not easy to pivot from a moving moment like that, but it also seemed to provide an extra spark for the rest of the day as the group began their second networking session. The students had the opportunity to talk to previous speakers from the day, external partners like Riddell's CEO Allison Boersma and senior vice president of marketing & communications Erin Griffin as well as members of the advisory board, including Murphy, Zavala, Oliver, uDe Agency founder and president Dinai Yelverton and Kinzie Capital founder and managing partner Suzanne Yoon.
"We all inspire each other on this board and challenge each other," Oliver shared. "It's really such an honor, and it's really necessary in the NFL. Kudos to \[Warren\] for making sure that he set a place at the table for people who are working outside of his organization to come in and help and give advice and look to the future, because that is where our future is. If you think about the absence of \[the board\], it makes it even more stark. If the board didn't exist, if this day didn't exist, if you start taking it all out, then you see how important it is."