Hello! My name is Avery and I am from Wilbraham, Massachusetts. I am a rising senior at Deerfield with a passionate commitment to community service, interpersonal relationships, and inspiring young girls in their development. This summer, I have the privilege of building upon my CSGC grant from last year: hosting free sports clinics to empower young female athletes.
Previous research from ‘Women In Sport’ finds that there are low participation rates for girls aged 5-18, with only 14% of girls aged between 8 and 10 years old meeting the recommended guidelines for physical activity. This statistic is heavily affected by the stigma of girls in sports. Young girls need people they can relate to attracting more interest and engagement. To approach this problem, I am working directly with young female athletes in my community by providing free sports clinics.
This year, I have an even better chance to make a positive impact thanks to Deerfield’s generous CSGC grant. As of now, I’ve already held my second annual free soccer clinic to inspire young female athletes. On June 26 and 27, over 30 girls worked on their confidence while building on technical and tactical soccer skills. From 9 am – 3 pm, the two days were full of high-energy drills to emphasize the love of the sport. Every girl received a custom-made INSPIRE clinic t-shirt and learned from our 8 talented female soccer volunteers. Many parents emailed their praise and a lot of the girls said that this was their favorite soccer clinic. Additionally, I’ve received numerous local business sponsors that support the clinics and it even got featured in local newspapers.
Currently, we are set to host our first Inspire field hockey clinic this August. The volunteers and I are in the middle of creating our own website, updating our social media accounts, and getting the word out about Inspire field hockey. By the end of the summer, we will have hosted two free events: our second soccer clinic and first field hockey clinic. Our current goal is planning for future clinics. We are planning on hosting clinics for other sports on Deerfield’s campus this year.
Thanks to Deerfield, this grant is not a one-time venture. I am building on a bigger vision for Inspire clinics as I hope to turn it into my own non-profit one day. Our ultimate goal is to provide opportunities for young females in traditionally underrepresented areas such as sports, stem programs, and female leadership conferences. As of now, Inspires sports clinics aim to tackle one facet of this challenge: to encourage participation in sports and empower the next generation of female athletes.
To get a better sense of Inspire, I highly encourage you to check out our Instagram: @inspire_clinics. BIG thanks to Deerfield for believing in my ideas and fostering growth for females in underrepresented areas.
-Avery ‘24
