For the last two years, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate has selected Jewish athletes at the college level for name, image and likeness deals as part of its Blue Square Athlete Ambassadors program.

The athletes wear the blue square that represents the fight against antisemitism and share it on social media. The Blue Square Alliance also helps them spread the message.

University of Pennsylvania lacrosse player Orly Sedransk is one of the athletes in this year’s cohort. The 20-year-old said she applied to be a Blue Square Athlete because “it was unlike any other NIL deal available.”

“To be able to represent something so identity-based and important to me was really important,” she added. “I feel very proud to be able to do that.”

Sedransk is the goalkeeper for Penn’s women’s lacrosse team. In 2025 and 2026, she was named Ivy League Goalkeeper of the Year and First Team All-Ivy. Last season, she helped the Quakers reach the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament, where they lost to Northwestern University 17-12.

Before college, at Montclair Kimberley Academy in North Jersey, Sedransk helped the Cougars win NJSIAA Non-Public B state championships in 2023 and 2024. She was a two-time USA Lacrosse All-America selection, the No. 1 goalie recruit in the class of 2024 according to Inside Lacrosse and a high honor roll student during all four of her high school years.

Throughout her years as a lacrosse standout, Sedransk’s main circles have consisted of athletes, and her teams have not usually had many Jews. Sedransk’s parents are Jewish, and she grew up going to Hebrew school, had a bat mitzvah and attended Jewish summer camp.

But after her bat mitzvah, she said it was difficult to find and connect with other Jews.

“I didn’t really have many Jewish friends in my high school,” she said. “I’m the only Jewish girl on my team, so I’ve kind of had trouble making Jewish friends.”

Through it all, though, Jewish identity and connection remained important to Sedransk. So when she saw a Penn baseball player, Josh Katz, land an NIL deal with the Blue Square Alliance in 2025, she looked up the organization.

“I went on their website and applied. I said, ‘This is really cool,’” Sedransk recalled.

The goalkeeper, naturally, loves lacrosse. She saw the Blue Square Athlete Ambassadors program as a way to unite two of her passions.

“I thought, ‘What better than to use athletics to bring that part back out of me?’ To use lacrosse, which I love so much, to connect it to my Jewish identity,” she said. “Talking about being Jewish hasn’t always been something I’ve been able to do so easily. It gives me a platform to be able to do it and makes me feel more comfortable doing it.”

Sedransk is a rising junior, so she wasn’t on Penn’s campus for the antisemitic incidents and flashpoints of a few years ago, including anti-Israel encampments on College Green that led to institutional changes.

She said she “hasn’t experienced much antisemitism at all.” But there was nonetheless “a small hesitation in the beginning when I applied” for the NIL deal. She’s aware of the general atmosphere of rising antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment, especially on college campuses.

But she’s not afraid.

“Now that I am a blue square athlete, I think it’s honestly all worth it. There’s really no hesitation anymore,” she said. “I have no problem talking about it.”

Sedransk said her teammates have been supportive. She also hasn’t received any negative comments on social media, though her accounts are only followed by people she knows.

“It makes it easier to do it when you know the people you care about most will support you,” the goalkeeper said.

jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com