TAMPA, Fla. – A new mentorship platform is launching in Florida to help young female athletes translate their sports skills into professional careers.
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Support for female athlete careers
What we know:
Founded by CEO Jennifer Addabbo, the platform, LeadHer, aims to provide career guidance and mentorship for female collegiate athletes and recent graduates.
Addabbo credits her own corporate success to her sports background growing up. She says the platform is designed to create a new playbook for these young athletes, centered around personal development, professional networking and career readiness.
“When they go to transition into a career, whatever that looks like; non-profit, corporate America, entrepreneurship, they lose that sense of community,” Addabbo said. “And so, it’s really important that we double down on that investment and make sure that they feel continuity between when they’re done with the sport, and they continue to leverage everything they learned in that process that made them who they are, but that’s not all they are.”
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Addabbo says they’re working to build a network of businesswomen, retired athletes and entrepreneurs and other mentors. Particularly for collegiate athletes, she says they also plan to incorporate guidance on navigating business ventures like NIL deals.
“Helping them understand what that looks like so that we have alignment of values with the girls and the brands that we’re partnering with, and that we are able to negotiate the best possible financial structure for them,” Addabbo said. “And then, as a follow-up, helping them to learn how to manage that money and have a full financial literacy package around that.”
Next steps for LeadHer
What’s next:
LeadHer is currently launching a pilot program with 25 athletes around Florida. Addabbo says the program is invite-only right now, but they have a waiting list, with plans to expand as the platform grows.
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Addabbo also hopes to expand the platform to young women nationwide.
You can find more information about LeadHer here.
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