“Pretty Amazing” Winner Uses Soccer to Empower Young Women.
For many young American girls, appearing on the cover of Seventeen magazine would be a dream come true. But for Notre Dame senior and former soccer player Lindsay Brown, winning Seventeen Magazine’s “Pretty Amazing” award signifies something else — helping girls around the world achieve their own dreams.Brown founded the SEGway project, which stands for Soccer Empowering Girls Worldwide and You, a program seeking to involve female American athletes in developing athletic skills and confidence for young girls in developing nations. The project currently serves girls in Nepal, Cambodia and Kenya, and Brown said particularly in these countries, soccer gives girls a confidence in other facets of their lives which they may not have had otherwise.
“The idea is that helping on the soccer field is an extension of the classroom, so girls can gain leadership skills necessary to make an impact on the community,” she said. “The interesting thing is that boys are starting to respect the girls a lot more in the classroom when they see them on the soccer field. We’re helping them segue into the community as leaders, because what good is an education if the boys don’t respect their opinion?”
