Raised in Mexico City, Paola Kuri began playing sports at a young age. “As a kid, I went with my friends to play in the park and there was this huge group of boys,” she recalls. “I always had to prove myself.” In 2012, Paola earned a bachelor’s degree in communications while playing for the university’s women’s soccer team.

Paola sees sport as a tool for underserved girls in marginalized areas—giving them hope and providing opportunities. “Sport cures you in a lot of ways. I’ve been to places where girls have been abused and they use soccer to help them move forward,” she says. “It is about playing the sport we love, but it’s also about creating better people. The soccer field is a magical place. If girls can play, they can become great people and great leaders for our country.”

In 2015, Paola launched #FutSinGénero (Soccer Without Gender), an initiative that provides equipment, life skills training, and soccer clinics for girls in communities that lack access to sport. Two years later, she was named “the voice of a new generation of women’s soccer players” by Vice Sports Spanish, and helped launch Mexico’s first professional women’s soccer league, Liga MX Femenil.