>> So I went to Pomona College.
I studied Latin American Studies.
I was really excited about a lot of different things -
sociology, history, I took Spanish as well.
I thought the Latin American studies was a really good way
to piece all of those things together.
I studied abroad in Mexico, southern Mexico, which was incredible.
And actually did a lot of my final years' worth here at Pomona looking at migrant workers.
There's so many migrant laborers from Mexico, actually from the State
that I lived in the south of Mexico.
And really wanted to look at what their experiences were in this country,
and I think that that has extended so many of the kids and coaches that we work with have kind
of similar stories of immigration or being from another place, and establishing themselves
in the U.S. So, I started at Pomona with Latin American Studies.
So I took of a kind of interesting path after Pomona.
I started my career at City Year which is an AmeriCorp national service program
in New York City.
And so I worked at a public school in the South Bronx which was incredibly working directly
with kids and teachers both on academics but also on kind
of the positive school climate and the after school time.
And I loved it.
It's still one of the best things I've ever done.
But it didn't have a specific sport component, and I felt like I really missed it.
And so then I actually transferred
over to another organization called America Scores New York which does,
it's an after school program that does soccer, creative expression
in poetry, and then community service.
And so that was really my first entrée into both the kind of non-profit field, but also this idea
of sports can be used really intentionally to do something.
And just got so excited about that work,
and America Scores was actually the founding organization of Up To Us Sports.