| Helping Hoop Dreams Grow
Photo courtesy of Susie Kay
Hoop Dreams staff and students gathered at Bender Arena Dec. 11 to watch the Eagles take on Ohio University. Pictured, from left, are Kogod assistant dean Lawrence Ward, Hoop Dreams staff Tyler Atkins, Susie Kay, H.D. Woodson
student Sckethia Smith, staff Theo Brannum, students India Head, James Freeman, Tameka Jones, and Karen Settles.
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Kogod
students help scholarship program with fund raising and marketing BY MIKE UNGER  Really, basketball is just a backdrop.
Look behind the name, Hoops
Dreams Scholarship Fund, and you’ll see that the organization Susie Kay ’86 conceived in 1996 has blossomed well beyond its blacktop beginning. Over the course of the last decade, Hoop Dreams has dished out more than $2.5 million in college scholarship money to more than 700 students from public high schools in Washington. While many students at these schools, like H.D. Woodson High where Kay taught government for 13 years, harbor the will and intellect to succeed in college, they often lack the means to do so. Kay eventually was overcome by her desire to nurture and grow Hoop Dreams, so she gave up her teaching career to run the organization on a full-time basis. Since then she’s endured a constant struggle to raise the money needed to support the burgeoning nonprofit, which provides so much more than just scholarships. Before Hoop Dreams students even set foot on a college campus, many have forged relationships with leading businessmen and women through the organization’s mentor program; some have bumped their SAT scores by a few hundred points thanks to a free Princeton Review SAT course—and many late nights spent with their noses buried in books, of course; still others have worked in congressional offices or media outlets as part of prestigious internships. Few have any more than a casual interest in basketball. The scope of Hoop Dreams’ impact on the lives of thousands of young, underprivileged, primarily African American Washingtonians is virtually endless. It wouldn’t be possible without Kay, her staff, scores of dedicated volunteers and mentors, and generous corporate sponsors. Last fall, American University became a cog in Hoop Dreams’ supportive wheel. Students in the Kogod School of Business’s Washington Initiative, a 1-credit elective class, examined ways to help Hoop Dreams. When the semester was over, they’d raised nearly $1,000 and the organization’s profile in the process. “The students in the Washington Initiative class were just spectacular,” Kay says. “They clearly worked so hard on our behalf. They really sunk their teeth into this and did the best job they could, and it wasn’t for a grade. It was a wonderful experience.” Since 2002, Washington Initiative students have used their developing business expertise to aide and assist nonprofits such as the D.C. Central Kitchen and IRS Voluntary Income Tax Assistance Program. “The students gain some practical experience,” says Lawrence Ward, Kogod assistant dean for undergraduate programs. “They get into a real world environment and get some real-time training on what [they’ve] been learning in their business classes. They get a sense of appreciation of what I call doing well and doing good at the same time. There is an intrinsic benefit that they feel. The students really care.” Kay, a political science major, credits her experiences as an AU undergraduate for sparking within her a concern for her new community, Washington, D.C. “Looking at the end result of where we are right now, I see a direct link to my days at American,” Kay says. “I was focused on politics and government and domestic issues and international issues, but I was really struck at just how divided our nation’s capital was as a community. Some of the issues we focus on nationally such as equity resources and education, ironically, didn’t seem to be materializing right here in Washington. It struck me always that this bridge I began to cross every day was really dividing us in so many ways, both literally and figuratively. So often we’re not able to realize those dreams because of a lack of funding and support systems.” So in 1996 Kay organized a three-on-three basketball tournament to raise scholarships for her students. She borrowed the name “Hoop Dreams” from the popular 1994 documentary, which chronicled two talented but troubled teenage basketball players trying to make it in inner city Chicago. In one of the film’s stars, Arthur Agee, Kay saw so many of her own students. “The spirit really engulfed the blacktop that day,” Kay says of that first tournament. “I really haven’t stopped working on this since. The first few years it was an all-volunteer effort to pound the pavement and try and raise money for academic scholarships, opportunities that I could leverage for the students. The first year we raised $4,000, by the third year we raised $55,000, every penny of which went out in scholarships. Since that point in 1998, the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund has turned into a year [round] program.” Following the technology bubble burst and Sept. 11, however, Hoop Dreams, like most charitable foundations, has struggled. Thus, the efforts of people like the Washington Initiative students is invaluable, Kay says. The students created a marketing and advertising campaign throughout campus and managed to secure for Hoop Dreams a portion of the concession proceeds from the Dec. 11 men’s basketball game at Bender Arena. During the game versus Ohio University, Hoop Dreams’ staff, volunteers, and program participants were honored. “The value comes in so much more than the funding,” Kay says. “Just to give us the opportunity to get the word out about our organization and what we’re doing. [The Kogod students] were really sensitive to understanding what our needs were. In working with them, they got really good experience on the flip slide. It was a really wonderful relationship.” |
