The New Growth Mindset for Women of Color: Essential Skills for Success and Wellbeing in Law

On my first day as a 1L, I walked into law school with confidence, determined to embody the change-agent I had portrayed in my admissions essay. Law school wasn’t just my plan since college; it was a dream I had nurtured for as long as I can remember. This was my moment to honor my parents' sacrifices, become the role model my community deserved, and ultimately, make a meaningful difference in the world.

Alas, my confidence was shattered within the first hour of Civil Procedure. The professor seemed to speak a different language. He kept referring to "IRAC," which, to my dismay, wasn't a country but an acronym—one I knew nothing about but was certain everyone else in class did.  Panic started to physically take over my body.  

I was transported back to my first day of kindergarten in America as a recent immigrant and Spanish speaker where I had also arrived at school with naive confidence only for it to be crushed when I realized I couldn't understand what was going on. A painful reality had set in. Everything familiar—everything I loved—had been left behind for good. Even now when I think back to that moment, the intense physical reaction floods back– my stomach twisted into knots, my heart raced, and my eyes widened as I struggled to fight back tears of loss and fear. I didn’t know if anything would be okay, or if I would be okay.  

Fast-forward a few decades later on that first day of law school, and I was the same confused and terrified girl.  This profound sense of inadequacy sparked an intense drive to excel that propelled me all throughout school. But my drive was fueled by a constant fear of failure and of being judged as not good enough. Success became a source of anxiety rather than joy, and instead of celebrating my achievements, I was my harshest critic.

Fortunately enough, my worst fear came true—I failed the bar exam. Of course, my ego experienced epic, crushing pain, but that huge failure paved the way for a much-needed mindset transformation. In the months leading up to the release of bar results, I had read Carol Dweck's Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, which introduced me to the concept of a growth mindset. This book profoundly changed my life, helping me view challenges as opportunities for growth rather than threats, and fails as a necessary part of the learning process.

“Growth mindset,” now a popular buzzword even in legal circles, deserves a fresh look for a few compelling reasons. First, we learn by repetition, and I want to deepen your understanding of what a growth mindset truly entails. Additionally, a new era of growth mindset research is revealing how to optimize its application for enhanced performance and well-being. Finally, this research is proving especially beneficial for students of color and first-generation students, offering valuable insights for women of color and first-gen attorneys that can help us overcome some of our mental barriers and pave the way for a more inclusive and equitable legal landscape.   

Some Background on Fixed and Growth Mindsets

People with a fixed mindset believe that abilities are inherent and unchangeable, while people with a growth mindset believe that capabilities can be developed with effort and the right strategies and resources. My own mindset was so ingrained with fixed beliefs that it wasn't until I read the research and science behind growth mindsets that I truly embraced this concept for myself.

Carol Dweck's work shows that our brains are wired to grow. When we work hard and put in the reps to learn something new, the neural connections in our brain become stronger, much like muscles do. Effort is a sign that I am working my brain. Challenges are opportunities to improve skills. Failure provides necessary data that I need to get to the next level. Corrective feedback is essential in pointing me in the right direction. We are wonderfully designed to be continually improvable at any age.  

Mindsets are lenses we use to see the world and they lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. With a fixed mindset, the discomfort of challenge leads to avoidance, and you miss out on opportunities to improve—essentially, you're robbing yourself of the reps. 

Conversely, a growth mindset allows you to separate your identity from your performance, focusing instead on effort and the process. This perspective makes taking risks easier and learning a lot more enjoyable. You become more willing to do the reps and seek the support necessary to improve.

The reality of a growth mindset shifted my entire reality. I had grown up believing that I was "smart" and that being smart was praiseworthy, which made me worthy. For the first time I really started to understand that my worth is never tied to an outcome but is intrinsic and unmeasurable.

Now, what happens when you embrace a growth mindset, are willing to do the reps, but still feel overwhelmed by the stress of the challenge? When our bodies react to a challenge with a racing heart, the butterflies-in-our stomach feeling, sweaty palms, shortness of breath, and a shaky voice, our instinctive response is to think something is wrong with us and to shy away from the challenge. We get stressed about our stress!    

This is precisely where the new era of growth mindset research comes in.  

A New Era of Growth Mindset Considering Stress

Psychologist Alia Crum's research reveals that our perception of stress—as either a threat or a resource—determines our body’s reaction to it. The belief in stress as debilitating will trigger a “threat response” where our blood vessels constrict, cortisol levels rise, and testosterone drops, leading to increased anxiety and reduced focus and confidence. However, viewing stress as beneficial can initiate a “challenge response,” where the body gears up for peak performance by increasing blood flow and oxygen to the brain, reducing cortisol, and elevating testosterone levels which all lead to increased focus and confidence.

Contrary to the conventional belief that stress is always bad for us, Crum has shown that stress is a normal part of performance and her findings suggest that by reframing our mindset towards stress, we can leverage it to enhance our performance instead of being overwhelmed by it.

Consider the oyster that uses irritants as a catalyst for growth. Faced with an uncomfortable grain of sand, the oyster secretes a substance to protect itself which over time leads to something beautiful and valuable: a pearl.  When you take on a "stress-as-enhancing" mindset, you can use stress as a resource and catalyst to help you meet a higher standard and grow more resilient over time.  

Given that both a growth mindset and a stress-as-enhancing mindset can significantly boost performance, which is more beneficial?  The truth is, they are most effective when combined. 

Research by psychologist David Yeager has shown that a synergistic intervention focused on teaching both mindsets can significantly improve students’ physiological reactions to stress, reduce anxiety, increase self-regard, and enhance academic performance over the long term. The benefits are particularly pronounced among students of color and first-generation students compared to students with more advantaged backgrounds.  

Yeager believes that students of color have had to confront a lot of fixed mindset messaging throughout their lives (e.g. that some groups are inherently more capable than others) but a growth mindset gives these students reprieve from those mistaken ideas and provides hope that everyone is capable of high achievement.  Furthermore, when students of color face a challenge that might lead them to doubt their abilities, understanding that their stress response can be harnessed as a resource, rather than perceived as uncontrollable or harmful, could be the crucial factor that determines whether they persevere through the challenge or disengage from it.

Using both mindsets makes sense; we need a growth mindset to initiate taking on a challenge, while a stress-as-enhancing mindset helps us manage the stress response that the challenge elicits. Recognizing that the physiological symptoms of stress are normal—and indeed helpful—keeps us in the fight.  

Final Thoughts

Here are some effective strategies to apply the research to your daily life:

Tip #1: Do the reps. 

Adopt a growth mindset by reframing your views on effort, challenges, failures, and feedback as essential components of the learning process, and then lean into the work.

Tip #2: Be the oyster. 

Identify when you're feeling stressed and acknowledge it. Once you recognize the symptoms of stress, remind yourself that it likely stems from your deep care and commitment to the domain; your heart is in it. Then, channel the stress response to help you transcend your perceived limits and rise to the challenge.

Tip #3: Self- teach.  

When in doubt, reflect on a past challenge you've conquered. What advice would you give yourself now, knowing you've overcome similar obstacles? 

For example, if I could speak to my younger self on the first day of kindergarten or law school, I’d say: “There’s no need to fear the unknown; you’re going to be okay! Your brain is built to learn any language with practice and support. There will be kind people to help you and even though some days will be tough, I promise the journey is worthwhile. And those uncomfortable sensations you’re feeling are your body preparing you to learn and to be brave—they are there to help you, not hurt you.”     

If you've ever had a moment where you felt so intensely inadequate or under-skilled that it caused you to panic and withdraw, I feel you. But remember, when you’re facing a challenge and start to feel the stress, remind yourself that your heart is in it, that you are completely capable of achieving whatever you desire, and you are far more equipped than you know.   

Sara Santoyo is on a mission to diversify the field of law, one woman of color at a time. As a first-gen attorney who passed the hardest bar exam in the nation and who overcame the barriers she faced as a WOC in law to land her dream attorney role, she developed the skills and confidence that comes from knowing that she can turn any adversity into an advantage. Sara now devotes her professional life to coaching young WOC lawyers to do the same and more.