Indiana University Women's Basketball · Sponsorship
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.
The need
of high school girls report persistent sadness or hopelessness.
report poor mental health most or all of the time.
seriously considered suicide.
U.S. female high school students, CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2023.
In a crisis, call or text 988.
drop in girls' confidence from age 8 to 14. The Confidence Code for Girls / Ypulse, 2018
teen girls worry about failing. The Confidence Code for Girls / Ypulse, 2018
Girls leave sport at twice the rate of boys by age 14. Women's Sports Foundation
60-second pitch
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.
The practice plan · #BuildStronger
Doctors, therapy and crisis lines. Coping and symptom relief. Essential, and it reacts after the damage is done.
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.
of women in the C-suite played sport.
lower depressive symptoms among team-sport athletes.
of former youth athletes score high on grit, compared with non-athletes.
What your sponsorship funds
Parents and daughters trained on the offensive side of mental health: grit, resilience, adaptability and perseverance.
12 months of the Mental Edge Academy for a Title I high school: 365 daily workouts, 104 live classes, 500+ tools and a scoreboard across 15 mindsets.
Free mental strength tools, the same ones pro athletes use, for 15,000+ girls basketball players across Indiana all of January.
Sponsorship of Indiana University Women's Basketball through their NIL program, supporting the players who lead the room.
What you're sponsoring
Daily workouts, a scoreboard across 15 mindsets, live classes and a toolbox. Take a one-minute tour of what a student athlete sees.
How a sponsorship works
A $10,000 sponsorship splits in two. Half pays Indiana's women's basketball players through NIL. Half puts an entire Title I high school on the Mental Edge Academy for 12 months.
Paid to IU Women's Basketball players who lead the symposium and represent the program.
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.
Become a sponsor
Email Eric Orme, founder of The AEA Institute, to talk through sponsorship and the January rollout, or sponsor online now.
eric@aea-neuro-fitness-academy.com