Fred Wells Tennis & Education Center

Thank you for visiting Fred Wells Tennis & Education Center's site during Give To The Fort Week!  Our goal is to raise funds to support our scholarships to offer financial assistance to youth who may not otherwise be able to participate in our programs. We are so grateful for our supportive community and hope you are able to stop by our facility, enjoy some goodies, and donate to ensure that cost is not a barrier to participation in our junior tennis programs. 

Below are the 3 scholarships we offer:

ISORA FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP

The Isora Foundation Junior Tennis Scholarship helps ensure that cost is not a barrier to participation in our junior tennis programs. Full or partial scholarships are available and individuals can apply every session. The scholarship is made possible through the generous, on-going support of the Isora Foundation and individual donors.

NGUYEN VO FAMILY COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP

Nguyen Vo’s family immigrated to Minnesota from Vietnam in 1975 with the help of kind family and friends and Nguyen grew in the Frogtown neighborhood of St Paul. In an effort to keep their kids from negative neighborhood influences, Nguyen’s parents kept their children engaged in sports. The Nguyen Vo Family College Scholarship generously provides the opportunity for Fred Wells Tennis and Education Center youth to apply to the colleges of their dreams and allows them to afford the first step towards college by providing monies for application fees and college start-up expenses.

JIM DIXON PLAY IT BETTER TOURNAMENT SCHOLARSHIP

Jim Dixon was a respected tennis coach and instructor who passed in November of 2020. He is remembered as a teacher who pushed his students to excel in the sport of tennis. It did not matter if you were a beginner or a 5.0 player, he taught you to strive to play it better. Two dear friends of Jim have created this scholarship to honor his passion for competitive tennis. The scholarship will ensure that cost is not a barrier for individuals to follow in Jim's coaching philosophy of "the more you played, the more you improved." By providing necessary funds to deserving students in grades 3-12, the legacy of Jim Dixon can continue and his love of the game will be passed on to a generation of players at the Fred Wells Tennis and Education Center who may not otherwise have an opportunity to fully pursue their aspirations in tennis. 

Watch the short video below to hear from our students and learn more about our programming!

Join us in our efforts because TennisWorks!

Youth who play tennis do better in the classroom, are more likely to say they plan to attend college, do not get into trouble as often in school, and are less likely to engage in risky behaviors, and this is true across all socio-economic levels. But unfortunately access to quality sports programs, including tennis, is not guaranteed.  Income is the number one indicator for early participation. Youth from the lowest income homes are half as likely to participate in sports as their peers from homes that earn at least $100,000 per year, and many populations are still under-represented in our sport. 

Striving to close this opportunity gap, the free Fred Wells Tennis and Education Center TennisWorks programs introduce tennis to youth in grades 3-12 with a strategic focus on youth who may not normally have the opportunity to play – More than 90% of the youth we work with through school partners qualify for the federal free and reduced lunch program and more than 90% identify as youth of color. 

We also offer full and partial scholarships into our fee-based junior tennis programs to ensure that the cost is not a barrier to participation.  

We are in a unique position to use tennis as the hook that captures a child’s interest, and while they are with us, we have an opportunity to get to know students and help them develop critical social and emotional skills, such as teamwork, goal setting, self-confidence, and a growth mindset.