
September 8, 2025
This system shall be all about excellence for households with the desires to succeed.
Tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams are taking their abilities from the court docket to the classroom with a brand new schooling program for underserved youth.
The sibling sport stars will run Williams Household Excellence Program in partnership with the USTA basis. This system will uplift various youth past the realms of tennis, providing mentorship in addition to educational assist and profession pathways for the “leaders of tomorrow.”
The USTA introduced the information Sept. 4 through the U.S. Open Ladies’s Semifinals. Its basis additional celebrated the information in an Instagram Reel honoring the Williams household as they created sports activities historical past.
The household got here along with a imaginative and prescient and function for the sisters from Compton, California. Now, this program will assist households identical to theirs as they assist kids attain their fullest potential.
“We’re honored to have this program named after our household and are proud to associate with the USTA Basis to assist create the leaders of tomorrow,” Venus and Serena defined in a press release, in keeping with the U.S. Open. “Our mother and father all the time inspired us to attempt for excellence, and tennis offered us the platform and alternative to observe our desires and obtain these moments. We really consider this program will proceed utilizing the game to supply others the chance to dream large and go away their very own marks.”
This system will assist youth and younger adults ages 13 to 25, with 2,500 anticipated members inside the decade. In its “Accelerating Excellence of Future Champions” pillar, this system will be a part of forces with native communal organizations benefitting underrepresented neighborhoods. Collectively, they may present “no-cost or low-cost high-performance coaching, faculty recruitment steerage, and entry to camps and competitions.”
With its different two pillars, the initiative can even sponsor scholarships, internships, and an entrepreneurship program for college kids with ambitions outdoors sports activities. The enterprise aligns with the Williams’ personal ambitions to create a legacy outdoors their taking part in time. Whereas Serena is an avid investor and proprietor of her personal magnificence line, WYN Magnificence, Venus additionally owns her personal clothes model, EleVen, in addition to an AI-focused startup, Palazzo.
As the 2 form their careers inside and past the tennis court docket, they continue to be dedicated to serving to others discover energy in their very own rackets. USTA chairman of the board, Brian Vahaly, spoke of how these sports activities trailblazers will proceed paving the way in which for others to search out success.
“Venus and Serena Williams have impressed tens of millions of individuals to play tennis, however their influence goes far past trophies and titles,” mentioned Vahaly, USTA chairman of the board, president, and interim co-CEO, per the U.S. Open. “They modified the sport in tradition, style, and enterprise, and their story is one in every of braveness and resilience. This program will carry that legacy ahead by giving younger individuals the identical sense of chance that the Williams household has given all of us.”
RELATED CONTENT: Serena Williams’ Subsequent Serve: Tennis Champ Joins Ritual As First Ladies’s Well being Advisor