Ashley Bendiksen

At 14, Ashley was excited about her first relationship – until it became abusive. This started a cycle of unhealthy relationships and choices that harmed her socially, mentally, and academically. Sadly, Ashley’s story isn’t unique. In the U.S., 1 in 3 teens experience dating violence, often in the form of emotional abuse, digital monitoring, and coercive control.

But it’s not just romantic relationships. Toxic friendships, family, peer pressure, and unhealthy social dynamics can also take a toll – impacting a student’s mental health, safety, and academic focus. Many teens stay silent, dismissing red flags as “just drama” without realizing the long-term consequences. However, these can become adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that significantly impact their present and future well-being.

As a survivor turned expert, Ashley takes an empowering approach – equipping students to recognize red flags, embrace green flags, and redefine the relationships in their life through renewed self-advocacy. Students learn to set boundaries, protect their well-being, speak up for others, and seek support when in need.

Learning Outcomes: 

• Recognizing what makes relationships healthy vs. harmful
• Awareness of teen dating violence and common red flags to spot
• Prioritizing green flags as the foundation of healthy relationships
• Role of boundaries for mental health and academic success
• Specific steps to seek help, plus tips to support a friend
• UPON REQUEST: Sexual assault prevention and consent education

As a college student, Ashley endured devastating harm – relationship trauma, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Yet, the hardest part was losing herself in the process. Struggling mentally and academically, she eventually dropped out. Her story mirrors what countless students silently experience, making her message urgent and deeply relatable.

On campuses everywhere, toxic and harmful behaviors are all too common. In fact, college students face the highest rates of relationship abuse and violence. Beyond immediate safety concerns, these experiences erode confidence, mental health, focus, and academic success. Addressing this isn’t optional – it’s central to student well-being and a thriving campus culture.

Ashley’s presentation is real, relatable, and refreshingly empowering, making her a must-have speaker for any school dedicated to student safety, belonging, and well-being. Later returning and graduating as Valedictorian, Ashley conveys the true impact of self-advocacy and relational health.

From the “red zone” to “red flags,” this talk is powerful year-round – orientation week, awareness months, student wellness, campus safety, and Title IX efforts, training for auxiliary staff. Students learn to not only recognize harm and access campus resources, but to speak up and take an active role in building a safe campus community. This is their home and their life now, and they help shape it.

Learning Outcomes:
Customized to align with your event goals

• Understanding abuse and power-based violence on campuses
• Reinforcement of campus resources for student support
• Recognizing red flags of emotionally abusive relationships
• Consent, Title IX, and sexual violence prevention
• How to build healthy and supportive relationships
• Bystander intervention + collective actions that build safer campuses
• Trauma-informed best practices for campus faculty/staff

No matter what a young person has faced – or how much they feel behind, different, alone, or exiled – they hold the power to overcome adversity and rewrite their story. Ashley’s journey is proof of this, and now she helps youth identify the tools, resources, and pathways available to change their lives too.

This presentation is designed for smaller and/or niche groups of youth facing unique challenges – including alternative schools, second-chance schools, juvenile justice programs, foster and adoptive youth, afterschool and life-skills programs, child welfare, and child and family services.

Strongly story-driven, this presentation provides youth who may feel hopeless or stuck in a cycle of failure with a powerful real-life example of resilience and transformation. Alongside Ashley’s story, youth gain research-backed practical tools and, when appropriate, engage in group dialogue for shared learning.

Each talk is fully customized. A call will be scheduled to understand your youth, community, demographics, challenges, and goals.

The focus can then be tailored around topics such as:

• Self-advocacy and boundaries
• Unconventional academic and career pathways
• Mental health and emotional regulation
• Positive coping and resiliency tools
• Healthy relationships and conflict management
• Alcohol and substance use
• Healing after abuse, assault, or neglect

The majority of youth-serving adults have never been trained on one of the most significant factors shaping student success: trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

In every community, students face adversity – whether through abuse or neglect at home, dating violence, or other forms of harm. Without early intervention, these experiences can profoundly impact a student’s development, behavior, mental health, and ability to learn. However, with the right awareness and trauma-informed skills, educators can become lifelines – unlocking the potential of every student to navigate challenges, build resilience, and achieve positive outcomes.

Blending both her lived experience and field expertise, Ashley leaves an indelible mark on how adults support youth. As a teen, Ashley couldn’t identify one trusted adult she could turn to, nor did the adults around her recognize she was at-risk. Today, she introduces a proactive, preventative approach to ensure that every student is seen, supported, and set up to thrive.

Learning Outcomes:

• Powerful role of educators and caring adults as lifelines to all youth
• Deeper understanding of trauma, abuse, ACEs, and their secondary impacts
• Adopting principles of universal precaution, building systems that benefit every student
• Proactive steps to build trust, psychological safety, and safe/supportive environments
• Early warning signs to look for, plus simple intervention and referral strategies
• Trauma-informed approaches to build resilience and drive positive outcomes

Ashley Bendiksen faced abuse, assault, and adolescent trauma. But that’s not where her story ends. Her journey from trauma to triumph – now as a survivor-advocate and leading voice on prevention, intervention, and resilience – is powerful. Her heartbreaking yet deeply moving story inspires hope, and proves that positive outcomes and change are possible.

But what makes her message truly remarkable is the way she connects it to the work of organizations like yours.

When Ashley takes the stage, she doesn’t just share a story – she builds connection, empathy, urgency, and compels individuals to act. She shows donors, with absolute clarity, that their generosity translates into safety, healing, and new life for those impacted by harm. She also connects this to the bigger picture – the ripple effect on families, communities, and futures.

Backed by her nonprofit leadership experience and a proven record of helping raise more than $5 million for charities, Ashley delivers a keynote that drives results. Each talk is tailored to your mission and event goals, blending her story, compelling data, and a direct call to action that moves donors to invest personally and boldly in your work.

Outcomes:

• Captivating and Powerful: Ashley’s deeply moving story captivates guest attention, while naturally tying in your mission and fundraising goals.
• Connection and Responsibility: Donors feel deep emotional resonance and alignment with your cause.
• Clarity of Need and Urgency: Donors understand why their support is not only life-saving, but urgent and essential.
• Inspired, Greater Giving: Guests feel motivated to contribute at higher levels, deeply comprehending what their donations can achieve.
• Direct Ask and Proven CTA: Closing with a powerful vision, Ashley will make a bold, clear, direct ask, empowering donors to make a significant impact.