Close the Gap

Villanova Women's Basketball · Sponsorship

One sponsor. One school. One region.

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

She trains her body every day. Who is training her mind?

53%

of high school girls report persistent sadness or hopelessness.

39%

report poor mental health most or all of the time.

27%

seriously considered suicide.

U.S. female high school students, CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2023.

In a crisis, call or text 988.

The confidence cliff hits right when she hits high school

30%

drop in girls' confidence from age 8 to 14. The Confidence Code for Girls / Ypulse, 2018

3 in 4

teen girls worry about failing. The Confidence Code for Girls / Ypulse, 2018

2×

Girls leave sport at twice the rate of boys by age 14. Women's Sports Foundation

60-second pitch

Close the Gap in 60 seconds.

Villanova video coming soonThe 60-second Close the Gap pitch with Villanova women's basketball.

The summit · Sunday, January 24

Sport is still the best sandbox we have.

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.

When
Sunday, January 24, 2027 · Time coming soon
Where
Live and online. Families join from home.
Led by
Villanova women's basketball players, live on the panel
For
Middle and high school girls across the Philadelphia area, and their parents
Cost
Free for every family
Every family gets
A digital autograph from the Wildcats players and a 30-day mental training plan

The practice plan · #BuildStronger

We built the ER. We never built the gym.

Defense · What we have

Treatment after the breakdown

Doctors, therapy and crisis lines. Coping and symptom relief. Essential, and it reacts after the damage is done.

Offense · What's missing

A gym for the mind

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.

94%

of women in the C-suite played sport.

~2×

lower depressive symptoms among team-sport athletes.

34 vs 23%

of former youth athletes score high on grit, compared with non-athletes.

What your sponsorship funds

One symposium. Four things.

01

Train thousands

Parents and daughters trained on the offensive side of mental health: grit, resilience, adaptability and perseverance.

02

Open the weight room

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.

03

15,000 athletes in the region

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.

04

Fuel the Wildcats

Sponsorship of Villanova women's basketball through NIL, supporting the players who lead the room.

How a sponsorship works

One sponsor = one school.

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.

$5,000

Athlete NIL

Paid to the Villanova women's basketball players who lead the summit.

$5,000

One Title I school

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.