Caitlin Deffler (Women’s Club Tennis Treasurer) and Jocelyn Zhu (Women’s Club Tennis Marketing Chair) participated in a competition by USTA New England to propose a way to improve accessibility of tennis in New England. Our solution was to “Create community between kids and college campuses, providing mentorship and accessible tennis through USTA Tennis on Campus x USTA Junior Tournaments.” After making it into the top 25 of proposals from across New England, Jocelyn joined a team with other finalists to further define a proposal to present to a panel of judges from USTA leadership. As a team coming from varying ages, locations, and backgrounds, they spent several months conducting research. The final proposal was a Summer STEAM tennis program that not only made tennis accessible to lower-income youth, but also integrated science, technology, art and math in partnership with community programs. We outlined the development of a curriculum that combined tennis and STEAM to make both accessible to youth. The team’s proposal won out of 5 teams, winning Northeastern Women’s Club Tennis $1000. The proposal will be implemented in New England in 2021.
USTA Article: https://www.usta.com/en/home/stay-current/newengland/innovation-challenge-creates-inclusive-culture.html
Winning Proposal Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n9-ltzdcXM