#GetaHeadStart: Bonnie St. John
[Music]
Bonnie St. John: People think of me as an Olympic skier and a Harvard, Oxford, Rhodes Scholar graduate. I was a White House official on the economic team. I've worked on Wall Street. People think of all the great things I've done, but most people don't know where I started.
I grew up in San Diego near the Mexican border. There were gangs. It was a difficult area to live in. My father left before I was born. My mom was a single mom struggling with three kids. And I had to have my leg amputated when I was 5 years old due to a birth defect. Before that, I was in braces. It was really hard.
Head Start gave me that feeling of goodness. I just remember it being a happy memory and a safe place. And that was certainly a turning point for me to be able to decide I want a better life.
A friend of mine from school invited me to go skiing with her family. And it was really hard. I fell and I fell. I was bruised all over. But I loved it and started racing. I qualified for the 1984 paralympic ski team. I was the second fastest woman in the world on one leg and the first African-American to win medals in Winter Olympics, period.
With everything I've achieved, Head Start was so important to me because it was a first step in the right direction.
Narrator: For information about Head Start programs in your area, please visit acf.hhs.gov/HeadStart. #GetaHeadStart. Produced in 2016 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
From the Olympics to Oxford and from Wall Street to the White House, Bonnie St. John has done it all. Listen to her talk about how it began with Head Start.
