Sonia Sotomayor: Empowering the Youth to Better the Future

By Sophie M. '28

Between pews filled with people in a small, beautiful Presbyterian church, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor stands before an endless line of children, craning their necks to get a glimpse of her. With patience and kindness, she listens to and answers every child’s questions, and enfolds each one in a loving embrace. 

Sotomayor was there to discuss her new children’s book, Just Shine, the story of her mother’s journey to America and the people she touched along the way. An immigrant to the United States from Puerto Rico and a single mother for most of Sonia’s life, Celina Báez Sotomayor believed that even when you are facing your own internal battle, it’s important to make the people around you feel seen, loved, and most importantly, capable of anything. 

Justice Sotomayor, though she grew up in a time when women couldn’t and didn’t fill the same roles that men did, said: “There were no women on the Supreme Court of the United States, no women on the highest court of New York… [but] I knew that women could be bosses. My mother became the head of an emergency room.”

For Sotomayor, having this strong female role model in her life pushed her to strive for her dreams, and without her mother, she wouldn’t be the norm-shattering, boundary-pushing woman she is. And she knows, like a true leader of the world, that the fight to break barriers doesn’t end with her; the hope for the future lies in the youth, who will inherit the earth and continue to shape it.

It was no surface-level kindness or shallow curiosity that brought this wise and experienced woman into the audience on September 11th, 2025, at her book signing and interview event. Sonia Sotomayor, simply by spending a moment talking to, or even hugging, every child in the room, helped cultivate the voice of these kids; after meeting her, every one of them is more confident in themselves and their ability to make a difference.

 “They are our hope to fix the mistakes we are making, and boy, are they big mistakes.”