Eagles' Nelson Agholor hosts empowerment panel with Jemele Hill for high school girls in Philadelphia

Nelson Agholor is inspired by his older sister.

The Eagles receiver sees Caroline Agholor, a single mother of four children, as a superwoman because she never makes excuses for the obstacles thrown her way. She conquers it with grace, he said. And it has given Nelson Agholor a calling for his off-field life to support those who face the biggest challenges.

“My older sister, she had kids at a young age she didn’t go to college but one thing I’ve always admired about my older sister, is she makes zero excuses,” said Agholor. “I’ve never seen a woman so tough. It doesn’t matter.”

Agholor hosted a women’s empowerment panel, “Girls Got Next”, for 50 high school students from Philadelphia Futures on Thursday at Lincoln Financial Field. Panelists included journalist Jemele Hill, Skai Blue Media founder and CEO Rakia Reynolds, and Fox Sports South reporter Olivia Gibbs. The students toured the stadium before arriving in the clubhouse for networking and food before they gathered for the panel discussion.

The panel was geared toward building up stronger women of color. Agholor wanted them to see successful women showing they could overcome barriers.

“For most of these high school girls, they’re going to take that next step to college and the real world, and I think this is a great time to kinda give them an interaction with some truly successful women of this world,” said Agholor. “Most of these young women, we want them to be the next big name. The next big name star in whatever avenue that they should choose.”

Gibbs, who attended the University of Southern California with Agholor, was an inspiration behind the event as well. Agholor spoke about how at 24, Gibbs continues to be a force at a young age among sports reporters. She holds her head high, is resilient day in a day out, and is able to make confident decisions which he admires.

"Well you've got to think about, most of these women are going into a field dominated by men," said Agholor. "So they're already women who broke a barrier in their own way. They talk about women that don't know sports. Well these are some of the most informed women out there doing it."

Agholor hopes going forward he can host more events like Thursdays. He highlighted that he does camps for young boys, but he looks forward to helping young girls as well when it comes to building confidence.

“I would love for this to kick off something truly special where we do something like this continuously. Whether it’s an annual thing, or we do multiple things in a year,” said Agholor.