Meet Carmin Caterina founder of Lessons For My Daughters. Driven by her own challenging childhood and her experiences in the New York City educational system, both as a student and educator, Carmin has returned with a girls empowerment program called Lessons for My Daughters. The program aims to help pre-teen and teen girls increase feelings of self-confidence, self-respect, and to recognize their own talents while working towards a purposeful and positive adulthood.
What does being grateful mean to you?
To me being grateful means living from your heart, being present, and seeing the beauty in what is.
Right now in this moment what are 3 things you are grateful for?
My life
My daughters 
My strength and resilience
Who is the first person that comes to mind when you hear, “Someone in my life that I’m grateful for and why?”
My nonna because her love is what helped me persevere and her love is the reason I’ve kept going.
What is your morning routine like?
Feeling grateful for the day. Green juice. Yoga.
What inspired you to create Lesson For My Daughters?
Working in NYC schools for many years had me feeling like something was missing in education. The humanistic side. Connecting to students at the heart level. I felt that kids, especially girls needed someone who could not only relate to them but also to remind them of their magic, power, and wisdom.
What were some of the obstacles you had to face launching your workshops?
Funding. Many schools don’t set aside monies needed to have extra programs because they are either struggling or perhaps don’t realize the value in a program like ours.
Please share with us how gratitude is part of your workshops?
Gratitude is the underlying theme throughout our entire series. It’s one of the first things we discuss. The girls are gifted with a gratitude journal on 
the first day and we begin each session sharing our gratitudes. They’re also encouraged to write their gratitudes daily.
Along your journey in creating Lessons For My Daughter did you find any sites, apps, or bloggers you would recommend us checking out?
There are so many people doing incredible things out there for girls such as The Love Group, Girls, Inc., The Hancock Family Foundation and Beautiful Me. I could go on and on.
Can you share with us any upcoming events and or projects you are working on?
Absolutely. We have a mother-daughter event celebrating the New Year on January 12 in Smithtown and we are hosting our full series beginning in January in Hicksville on Saturdays and Brooklyn on Mondays.
In closing, what are some suggestions that you can give our readers that can help them incorporate gratitude into their daily lives?
The thing that has truly transformed my life is to keep a gratitude journal where you write down three things you are thankful for every day that are novel to that day. Be specific and watch the magic unfold. I’ve also incorporated a gratitude jar in our home that we use to write down something when we are feeling particularly grateful. We encourage our guests to join in. Then we read them all on New Year’s Day.
Connect with Carmin
Twitter | Linkedin | Pinterest
