Access Across Latin America
USTA SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
NOVEMBER 29, 2025 – CAMILLE HANSON
USTA SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Created from the vision and aspirations of two passionate tennis coaches and grassroots advocates, Ace Your Dreams emerged from the vibrant Santa Barbara tennis community through Santa Barbara Tennis Patrons, the oldest Community Tennis Association (CTA) in California. Long committed to the belief that tennis can open doors to opportunity, the initiative now reaches far beyond local courts, bringing the sport to underserved youth across Latin America and inspiring them to discover confidence, connection, and limitless possibility through tennis.
A Family Legacy of Expanding Access
Longtime volunteer and co-founder of Mission Scholars, a nonprofit that provides high-achieving, underserved students with mentorship, academic advising, and college and career guidance, Katie Kinsella knows firsthand the power of access and opportunity and can attest to the impact the organization has had on her and her family. Growing up playing in local youth tennis leagues and USTA Southern California tournaments, throughout her teenage years Kinsella volunteered with her dad, John Kinsella, a tennis teaching professional, building the schools program that he started for Santa Barbara Tennis Patrons in the early 2000s.
“Growing up, my dad championed bringing tennis to underserved, low-income elementary blacktops. I vividly remember tying up old volleyball nets around town to introduce the sport of tennis to young kids.” said Katie. “Over the years, I’ve maintained this strong passion for bringing tennis to underserved communities that my dad first instilled in me.”
Transitioning from a passionate volunteer to a formal role with the organization, Katie helped revamp and transform the school program over the last three years. She still volunteers alongside her dad regularly, a family tradition that strengthens their bond and the program itself. Together, they continue to grow inter-school competitions and bring tennis to new blacktops all across the city.
Katie’s vision soon extended beyond the city limits of Santa Barbara. Inspired to dream bigger, she began exploring ways to bring tennis to underserved communities in Latin America — laying the groundwork for what would become the international program Ace Your Dreams, bringing the sport to streets and courts across South America.
Billie Jean King (right) and Rosie Casals (left) with Venus and Serena Williams.
Planting the First Seeds in Chile and Colombia
After graduating from UCLA, Kinsella landed a teaching job with the United Nations Development Program located in Chile. Despite starting her professional career as a transplant, Katie was encouraged by her dad to plant her roots in Chile with the tennis racquets and volleyball net she brought from home.
“In addition to my work in the classroom, I created a tennis program at a local school and orphanage in Chile for students living in poverty. At first, I brought racquets donated from my friends and family to launch the program, but it really became official when Tiffany Reed [the School Tennis Manager] at USTA Southern California read my email request and donated portable nets and racquets. I remember how excited I was driving down to LA to pick up the donation. I then carried them with me all the way back to Chile,” Kinsella recalled.
Kinsella’s passion for education later earned her a Fulbright Scholarship in Cali, Colombia, where she launched an outreach program empowering Afro-Colombian displaced youth.
USTA Southern California Helps Launch Ace Your Dreams
Motivated to expand her impact, Katie reached out to USTA Southern California to see about receiving a donation of equipment to bring with her to Colombia. In the summer of 2023, Community staff members Kevin Finkelberg and Camille Hanson coordinated a donation of youth tennis racquets in various sizes along with portable pop-up nets, officially launching Ace Your Dreams.
Katie recalls a poignant moment distributing the equipment to her Colombian students. “It was a two week program with a group of kids who didn’t even have shoes. They were so excited to unwrap these racquets, they were jumping up and down! Some students actually kept the plastic on to keep the racquets in good condition, and others saved the plastic wrap, putting it straight into their backpacks to take home. They’d never even seen a racquet in their lives.” In the summer of 2024, Katie returned to the same neighborhood of Aguablanca, outside of Cali, Colombia, with additional equipment donated by USTA SoCal to serve even more youth than before.
Alongside her father’s initial encouragement, Katie credits the program’s true success to her co-founder and partner, Santiago Segovia. Santiago brings extensive experience to the initiative. He is the current Girls Varsity Tennis Coach at Laguna Blanca High School, a tennis professional at La Cumbre Country Club, a long-time volunteer with Santa Barbara Tennis Patrons, and a private coach in the Santa Barbara community.
Ace Your Dreams founders Santiago Segovia and Katie Kinsella.
Ace Your Dreams is a project close to heart, and home, for Santiago. Taking his first tennis lesson at the age of nine in Villa Ramallo, Argentina, Santiago fell in love with the sport and began to play Junior Tennis tournaments. At 14, he traveled to Paraguay twice to play two International Tennis Federation Tournaments (ITF) tournaments. Around that time, he also began coaching at the local club as a way to fund the demanding travel schedule. After competing in numerous professional tennis tournaments within the Argentina Tennis Association, Santiago moved to the U.S. at 19 to play tennis at Glendale College with a full-ride scholarship.
“My motivation to co-found Ace Your Dreams was the dream to make tennis accessible to kids in underserved communities,” said Segovia. “I always dreamed of ways to showcase tennis as a sport that can help people open many doors throughout life, regardless of whether you play it at a professional or a recreational level. Facilitating access to tennis communities where the sport was a distant option is the way that we found to open doors and invite youth to practice this beautiful sport.”
Growth Across Borders and Across Communities
Katie and Santiago successfully pitched the creation of a formal program to Santa Barbara Tennis Patrons, and a few months later, the initiative expanded to Argentina in July 2025. For the first time, the team included two local Santa Barbara student ambassadors who traveled with them to support leading this initiative.
The true impact of Ace Your Dreams on the local students is difficult to put into words. Partnering with local schools and tennis coaches has been key to the program’s success. Katie and Santiago prepared extensively before travel, securing grassroots partners and managing participant sign-ups to ensure they reached the intended underserved communities.
Despite the challenges of managing the program in small, remote communities — including providing portable nets, racquets, and tennis balls — Santiago emphasizes the critical role of the local coaches. “Fortunately, the local coaches that are working with Ace Your Dreams in the Argentinian communities — Carolina Rulli, Juan Lara, and Agustina Tonello — share our same values and the goal to facilitate access to the beautiful sport of tennis. They promote the free weekly tennis lessons among their communities, and sometimes bring their own equipment to ensure every kid can learn and enjoy the sport.”
“Katie and I work together from Santa Barbara to find the Santa Barbara ambassadors, local youth that are currently making an impact in Santa Barbara through tennis and community service. Caroline Kenny, a local tennis player, and Victor Rendon, a first generation college student that volunteered at the local After-School Program, were the first ambassadors of the program, and they traveled with us to Argentina in July of 2025,” Santiago noted. “Katie and I work closely with the local coaches in Argentina to ensure they have everything that they need. Also, we promote the program locally and find ways to grow while ensuring it can be sustained over time.”
The local Argentinian community itself also became a valuable partner, including a bread shop that donated hot cocoa and pastries for the kids and coaches to enjoy each morning as they discussed the goals for the day. Katie and Santiago were even invited to appear on three different radio stations in Argentina during the two weeks.
“In every town, you could feel the excitement the moment we arrived. These were small communities, and word traveled fast — by the time we finished a radio interview and walked to the corner store, people were already coming up to us, thanking us for being there.,” Kinsella exclaimed. “Parents wanted to enroll their kids on the spot. One of the restaurants we went to, the next day the son of the restaurant owner was in our clinic! It felt like the whole town was behind us — like the community itself had shown up to dream with us.”
Despite initial nerves, coaches encouraged kids to step outside of their comfort zones and try something they thought was unimaginable. While clinics in Colombia were held on a blocked-off street, the beautiful deserted clay courts of Argentina were put to good use.
“My favorite moment is when we did the first Ace Your Dreams clinic in Ramallo, my home town,” Segovia recalled. “It was raining the day before, the clay courts had many puddles, and we needed to find another location. The local club, Defensores de Belgrano, allowed us to use their basketball facilities, and we created tennis courts using volleyball nets and cones. Kids with their families were arriving, my family was there too. When I got to the middle of the basketball court to take a general perspective of how things were going, I saw 37 kids running around, warming-up, and having fun. Their families were sharing mate and observing their kids try a new sport. At that moment, I realized that one of my dreams was becoming true.”
Cathy Jacobson-Guzy and Billie Jean King at the 2025 USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ Nationals tournament in San Diego.
Tennis as a Path to Possibility
One unforgettable moment involved large, bright printed tennis balls laminated on paper. Many of the workshops centered around goal-setting, and coaches instructed each student to write down their big dream for the future. In Argentina, many kids dreamed of becoming famous soccer players. According to Katie, it quickly became apparent that these students had never been asked to imagine a life without limits. To change that, the team had them tie their “dream” tennis balls to the net and played above their personal “net of dreams.”
“Maybe some will go on to become famous players, but for the majority it was more of a metaphor, a bridge of getting excited for something and challenging what they think is possible for their lives,” Kinsella said. “In Argentina, even here the history has been that tennis is for the white, rich elite. Our goal was to break down the barriers that hold them back — to open a window of possibility and help them dream about what else their future could hold.”
As the sun set across the clay courts on the program’s final day in Argentina, Katie and Santiago watched the kids light up, laughing, smiling, and running with their parents’ hands to find their “dream” on the net.
“Santiago and I were cleaning up at the end and reading each of their dreams — we looked at each other and broke down in tears, it was so beautiful. The dedication with which they sat down and really thought about their dreams, knowing how hard it was to get them to dream about their future at the beginning. We literally held their dreams in our hands,” Katie recalled.
The grassroots nature of Ace Your Dreams shines through the program’s sustainability. Local coaches continue to run two weekly clinics with an average of eight kids per class. The team raised enough funds to cover the salaries of three tennis coaches across the three Argentinian communities, allowing clinics to continue twice a week for a whole year with the same students. In 2025, a total of 143 youth were impacted, with local coaches sending monthly reports on clinic hours and student participation. While expansion to other countries is a long-term goal, Katie emphasizes the importance of fully supporting existing communities first.
“We leave the donations and equipment there in the communities to continue growing. For your team to have confidence and vision in us and in this program, I’m so grateful that you believed in us from the get-go,” Kinsella remarked. “USTA SoCal has been the main source of racquets and nets – they are in communities that really need them and are being used twice a week to continue supporting the students.”
Now a formal program with a long-term strategic plan in place, Ace Your Dreams aims to expand the program and establish more tennis clinics across Argentina and Latin America.
“We will have two new Santa Barbara Ambassadors working with us each year who will represent our values and share their love for tennis with youth in Latin America. To achieve sustainability, we will continue to nurture our relationship with the local coaches,” said Segovia. “They are the heroes in this story, the local coaches have the trust of their communities and the passion to teach this beautiful sport. We are currently planning a trip for 2026 to open three more clinics in Latin America.”
