Teen Athlete | Activist Olivia Ohlson Is Diversifying Sports

Oftentimes we go the extra mile to give honor to professional athletes who have excelled in their game and in life. It's so important to me to acknowledge those within our own community who are also excelling at their game and making a difference in the lives of others.

At an early age this young star has already made a huge impact on society with her accomplishments in spoteen-athlete-activist-olivia-ohlson-is-diversifying-sportsOliviarts and in society.

Olivia Ohlson is a 16 year-old Junior at Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Illinois. After meeting her I knew right away that she was someone to know just by the confidence she exudes and the passion she openly shares about her work. I had the pleasure of meeting Olivia at the Young Biz Kids event last summer where she participated as a vendor. Her drive to be a positive influence in the world is evident.

She’s played golf, basketball and softball at ETHS the last two years but this year has opted to concentrate on golf and is on the Varsity squad. She is also a student ambassador and part of that leadership team, serves as writer for her school’s newspaper the Evanstonian and is part of the Black Student Union and Community Service Club. She’s a 4.3 student and last year has been inducted into both the Freshman and Sophomore Honor Societies. In addition, Olivia works part-time for the City of Evanston on the City’s Youth Advisory Committee where she is active in city events and activities.

Olivia has been active in community service since she was six years old participating in projects through Chicago’s Honeycomb Project where she’s received her 20 service project pin. In Fifth grade, she started her first project, Olivia’s Pink Lemonade and Pink Ribbon Cookie Stands where over the past five years and five stands outside her home she has raised over $13K for the North Shore Kellogg Cancer Center in response to her mother having gone through breast cancer treatment at the Center.

In June of 2020, after seeing many people struggling financially she began collecting hygiene items and started her second on-going project Hygiene Kits for Evanston’s Under Served. Since her first distribution in July 2020 she has continued to distribute kits initially several times a month and now 3-4 times a year. She’s donated over 4K in kits mostly made in her living room to over 10 Evanston and Chicago organizations.

For her efforts, she was awarded a national Point of Light Award and was added to the Point of Light Honor Roll in the summer of 2020. In 2021, she was honored with the Chicagoland Jewish Child and Family Service (JCFS) Extraordinary Adolescent Award and also with the Future of Evanston Award from the Evanston Chamber of Commerce and Northwestern.

Olivia has just started her third year serving on the Girls Play Sports Youth Advisory Board where she has helped organize and presented at two one-day conferences and a field day. This year she will be part of the GPS Advisory Board executive team. In part due to her efforts on the GPS Board and through lessons and playing golf herself she distinctly noticed a lack of girls and kids of color playing golf, and thus, Olivia decided to launch her third project Diversify Golf in the Spring of 2022. She applied for and was awarded a community service grant from Cradles 2 Career to help pay for supplies and launched a local search for donations of golf clubs which resulted in 15 sets being donated for use during her clinics. She’s held individual putting and chipping stations several times over the last two summers. She’s also created and lead free golf clinics for campers enrolled in a local summer camp two days a week for a month both of the last two summers. She held two clinics this past fall.

This summer Olivia also went through training in St. Louis as part of her being a YBK – Young Biz Kids Ambassador along with her entrepreneur friends Jahkil Jackson and Alyssia Duda. The three of them hosted a YBK youth vendor event for 20 youth entrepreneurs in Evanston. YBK Day is a national event with 7 vendor cities run by ambassadors across the country.

For her efforts as both an athlete herself and for her efforts to expand athletic opportunities for girls and kids of color, she was nominated by her high school athletic director for a one-time honorary ESPY from ESPN Radio and Television last summer in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Title IX and Olivia was selected as one of five winners from across the country to a receive an honorary ESPY Award.

Additionally, this summer she was selected from nearly 800 applicants as one of nine female athlete-activists nationally to be part of the 2023 Cracker Jill Team which is part of a campaign designed by the Cracker Jack brand in an effort to promote girls and women’s sports.

Olivia is on the cover and her service story is featured in the book, Leading the Way the 7th in a 7-series set of books about Young Change Makers written by Minnesota author, Stacy C. Bauer which was published in the Fall of 2022.

She loves speaking about her work and she

has been interviewed and featured in the Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, Chicago Parent Magazine, Good Morning America on-line, NBC 5-Chicago, ABC 7-Chicago, WVON-Radio, Evanston Roundtable, Daily Northwestern, Yahoo News, Good Black News, The Gist among others. She’s also spoken at events and been a guest on local radio, tv and local and national podcasts.

In her free time, she loves to hang out with friends, listen to and play music, and loves photography, art and especially creating origami pieces all of which she has sold locally. Olivia also loves to design and was selected to create the 2023 Evanston Juneteenth Parade t-shirt.

It's also exciting to know that this Saturday Olivia will be accepting the Evanston-North Shore NAACP Trailblazer Award. Now that's great news! Olivia is looking forward to attending college in two years and on becoming an engineer and MD.

I am so proud of Olivia and the major impact she has on society. As you can see, Olivia is someone we should all know. Follow her on her journey as she continues to spread love and make a positive difference in the lives of others.

For more information about Olivia please follow her on:

Instagram @osoeprojects

Facebook @diversifygolf

Instagram @diversifygolf

website http://www.oliviaohlson.com