C
Courage
We step forward and take initiative, even when it is uncomfortable.
Helping young people connect what they learn today to what they can do tomorrow
Helping young people connect what they learn today to what they can do tomorrow
Too often, young people disengage from school not because they lack ability, but because they do not see how what they are learning connects to their future.
Sports create energy, discipline, and consistency. But for most young people, those experiences are never connected to broader opportunity. The lessons stay on the field. The classroom stays abstract. And somewhere in that gap, a young person starts to wonder whether any of it is worth showing up for.
Smart Sports was created to close that gap. Not with a theory, but with a model that has been tested, observed, and refined through real programming with real scholars.
We are one year in. What we have seen in that first year has confirmed what we believed when we started, and pushed us to move faster
“Access isn’t the issue. Clarity is.”
Our approach is shaped by the voices and experiences of the young people we serve.
One of our curriculum units introduced scholars to SMART goals and challenged them to design an impact project around a real community issue. When the conversation turned to litter in their neighborhood, scholars decided to start close to home by focusing on their own school as a first step. They built a survey, administered it in person to teachers and administrators, and used the results to build an action plan. The tools were in the curriculum. Scholars decided what to do with them.
Smart Sports is guided by leaders committed to expanding opportunity for young people through education, sport, and community impact.
A Note From the Founder
Smart Sports was not built from a distance. It was built from decades inside collegiate and professional athletics, watching firsthand how powerful sports can be in opening doors, and how rarely those doors get opened for young people who do not already have access to the right networks, the right mentors, or the right exposure.
I spent my career in rooms that most young people never get to see. Rooms where decisions get made about careers, opportunities, and futures. What struck me was not who was in those rooms. It was who was not.
Smart Sports is my answer to that. What I have seen already has reinforced everything I believed when I started this, and made me more committed to building it into something that reaches far beyond Chicago.
Kelly Mehrtens
Founder, Smart Sports
There are multiple ways to bring Smart Sports to more young people and expand access to opportunity.