Mónica González was honored as an Ashoka ChangemakeHER, Changemakers's inaugural celebration of the world's most influentual and inspiring women. Find her fellow honorees' voices here.
After ten years with the Mexican National Soccer Team, Mónica González founded Gonzo Soccer Girls Leadership Academy, a soccer and leadership academy for underprivileged girls in the United States and Mexico. She is currently training for the World Cup this summer in Germany.
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As a professional soccer player in both the United States and Mexico, Monica Gonzalez has always felt empowered through sport. Monica founded Gonzo Soccer Girls Leadership Academy after realizing that the high fees associated with youth soccer leagues were deterring many Hispanic girls from playing soccer.
Gonzo Soccer provides girls ages 8 to 16 with premier soccer training, academic assistance, and valuable life skills. Gonzo Soccer’s safe environment, state of the art leadership curriculum, ongoing interaction with engaging female role models, seminars for parents, exciting field trips, and connections to valuable scholarships provide girls in underserved communities in Chicago and Mexico with opportunities that are otherwise out of reach.
In this short video, Monica tells us about the credibility and publicity that accompany a professional sports career, and how that attention can be channeled into founding an organization to support a passionate personal cause. She emphasizes the importance of asking for help, and of forming alliances with other organizations in order to get a new initiative off the ground.
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