Villanova Women's Basketball · Sponsorship
Close the Gap is a mental fitness initiative for women and girls, powered by The AEA Institute and the Mental Edge Academy. We train mental strength the way athletes train their bodies: with daily reps, a coach, and a scoreboard.
Live virtual summitSunday, January 24
The need
of high school girls report persistent sadness or hopelessness.
report poor mental health most or all of the time.
seriously considered suicide.
U.S. female high school students, CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2023.
In a crisis, call or text 988.
drop in girls' confidence from age 8 to 14. The Confidence Code for Girls / Ypulse, 2018
teen girls worry about failing. The Confidence Code for Girls / Ypulse, 2018
Girls leave sport at twice the rate of boys by age 14. Women's Sports Foundation
60-second pitch
The summit · Sunday, January 24
It's the safest place a young woman will ever rehearse the hardest moments of her life, and she shows up for it voluntarily every afternoon. The question is whether mental training happens on purpose or is left to chance.
The practice plan · #BuildStronger
Doctors, therapy and crisis lines. Coping and symptom relief. Essential, and it reacts after the damage is done.
Resilience, focus and confidence trained as skills, with reps, scorekeeping and visible progress.
You can't cope your way to strong. You train your way there.
of women in the C-suite played sport.
lower depressive symptoms among team-sport athletes.
of former youth athletes score high on grit, compared with non-athletes.
What your sponsorship funds
Parents and daughters trained on the offensive side of mental health: grit, resilience, adaptability and perseverance.
12 months of the Mental Edge Academy for a Title I Philadelphia-area high school: 365 daily workouts, 104 live classes, 500+ tools and a scoreboard across 15 mindsets.
Free access to our weekly Identity mental strength tool for 15,000 girls basketball players within 120 miles of Philadelphia and across the tri-state area, all of January.
Sponsorship of Villanova women's basketball through NIL, supporting the players who lead the room.
What you're sponsoring
Daily workouts, a scoreboard across 15 mindsets, live classes and a toolbox. Take a one-minute tour of what a student athlete sees.
How a sponsorship works
A $10,000 sponsorship splits in two. Half pays Villanova women's basketball players through NIL. Half puts an entire Title I high school on the Mental Edge Academy for 12 months.
Paid to the Villanova women's basketball players who lead the summit.
A full year of mental strength training for every student and athlete in the building.
Concept for discussion. Subject to university policy, NIL rules and compliance review.
Become a sponsor
Sponsor online now, or email Eric Orme, founder of The AEA Institute, to talk through sponsorship and the January 24 Villanova summit.
eric@aea-neuro-fitness-academy.com