Zeta’s Tribe Stars: Bringing Opportunity to Young Footballers in Liberia
LEAD MFA Alum designs community project centered on empowering Liberia’s talented youth.
LEAD MFA ‘24 Alum, Zeta has always embodied what it means to be a leader. At LEAD MFA, she was an exemplary student-athlete, who had a deep commitment to helping her peers and teammates thrive. As captain of LEAD MFA’s women’s football team, she led her team to victory in the 2024 Liberia Lower Women’s League championship. She was also a former captain of Liberia’s U-17 Women’s National Team, representing her country on the international stage.
Now a sophomore at the College of William & Mary, she continues to shine, carrying forward the same leadership qualities that defined her time at LEAD MFA. As a recipient of the Hixon Family Scholarship and a player on the W&M Tribe women’s soccer team, Zeta is no stranger to the discipline and rigor it takes to be a great student-athlete. But what truly sets her apart is her passion and desire to help others.
In December 2025, she decided to go back home to Liberia to kickstart a community service project that is near and dear to her heart. Through her community initiative, Tribe Stars in Liberia, Zeta hosted three youth football camps in Liberia and provided over 90 children with football gear and school supplies. But most importantly, Zeta shared that the camps’ main purpose was to “teach leadership, instill teamwork, and build confidence among players.”
The camps served students, ages 12-18, from the low-income communities of West Point, Chicken Soup Factory, and Careysburg. Each one-day camp included leadership and team-building workshops followed by football training and a friendly competition.
LEAD MFA played a major role in facilitating the camps. Workshop speakers included LEAD MFA ’24 alumni, such as William Koisee, and LEAD MFA coaches led both the football sessions and leadership training for participants. Through in-kind donations from William & Mary and other supporters, students received a soccer jersey, a pair of shorts, and a school backpack filled with notebooks and pens. Zeta also donated over 30 soccer cleats and 4 goalposts to LEAD MFA as a thank you for all their hard work on this project.
The Spark: How It All Started
Like all great leaders, Zeta wanted to fix a problem. She grew up in West Point, one of the poorest communities in Monrovia, Liberia, with residents often living on less than a dollar a day. While she loved playing football with the neighborhood kids, she often played as the only girl on the field and without proper equipment. Returning home during breaks from LEAD MFA, she noticed that many children faced the same challenges she had. They played barefoot, lacked the right resources, and often felt overlooked.
Zeta explained that while the local kids in her community have exceptional talent, more often than not they quit playing football because they feel like no one is watching. Zeta wanted to change that. She wanted them to feel seen and know that their hard work is valued, and encourage them to keep going. Simply put, “This project is [her] way of saying you are valued, you deserve this, and we see you.”
Zeta and LEAD MFA volunteers distributing football gear and school supplies to camp participants in Chicken Soup Factory and West Point communities in Monrovia, Liberia.
What’s Next for Tribe Stars in Liberia
After the successful launch of Tribe Stars in Liberia, we asked Zeta about her vision for the project’s long-term impact. She hopes it will continue thriving well beyond her time at William & Mary, growing into a movement that draws support from people around the world and continues empowering Liberia’s youth through football. “My main goal is not to make myself the center of the project; instead, I want to empower those around me and help them see this project as their own,” Zeta explained.
She also reflected on the incredible support she received from the community in bringing the project to life, giving special thanks to Leon Crawford (LEAD MFA ‘24) and the LEAD MFA team for being such key partners along the way.
This project was made possible through the W&M Hixon Family Enrichment Scholarship, crowdfunding on GoFundMe, support from William & Mary coaches and teammates, local soccer clubs in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the hard work and dedication of many Liberian community leaders and members, including LEAD MFA. We’re incredibly proud of Zeta’s leadership and inspired by the way she is using her skills, resources, and talent to make a difference in her community.