Every child deserves the chance to play.

Sports changed the direction of my life.

I was born and raised in Bucharest, Romania, and I started swimming when I was five years old. My mother did not know how to swim, but my first coach saw potential in me and believed I could become something more. That belief opened a door I may never have found on my own.

By the age of nine, I was training for my first Romanian National Championship and at fourteen, I made my first Senior National Team. Over the years, I became a multiple-time National and International Champion, earning more than 100 titles along with numerous awards and recognitions both in my home country of Romania and on the International stage.

At eighteen years old, sports opened another door that changed my life forever. I received multiple scholarship opportunities from universities across the United States, and through the support and guidance of my coach, the late Mona Nyheim Canales, I had the opportunity to come to America on a full athletic scholarship to the University of North Texas.

I arrived on my own with two duffle bags, $300, and one goal: to make the most of the opportunity I had been given.

After earning my undergraduate degree in Marketing and New Product Development and later my MBA in Strategic Management, I went on to build a successful career in corporate America. But I never forgot where my journey began or the role sports played in giving me access to a better future.

Texas Champions Foundation was created from that gratitude.

For me, this foundation is personal. It is my way of giving back and helping provide the same kind of opportunity that sports and America gave to me. I know what can happen when a child is given a chance, when a coach believes in them, and when financial barriers do not stand in the way of their potential.

Today, youth sports can be expensive. Registration fees, equipment, uniforms, camps, clinics, travel, and tournament costs can prevent talented and dedicated children from participating. That should not be the reason a child is left out.

Texas Champions Foundation exists to help remove those barriers and give more children the chance to participate, grow, compete, and discover what they are capable of becoming.

Sports changed my life. Now, I want to help make sure they can change someone else's.