PERSONAL STATEMENT

Everything went blurry as my eyes welled up.  Standing at center court with “RAPTORS” written across the front of my jersey, I looked up and spotted my mother.  Her hands were over her mouth, seemingly overcome with the joy of seeing her son on college basketball’s biggest stage.  Yet, it was neither the 75,500 fans that filled the arena nor the 22.3 million who tuned in to watch via TNT, TBS, and truTV that pushed us both to tears. Our eyes met and we shook our heads in disbelief, still pondering the question she asked me before I walked out onto the court of the 2016 NCAA Men’s Division I Final Four game: “How?… Harry, how did you get here?”  Basketball, simply put; but there is nothing conventional about my “road to the Final Four." My story depended on the sport's ability to foster and provide access to useful social networks, resources and information--  commodities that I, and many other low-income students like myself, had lacked. Those resources got me to that court in spring of my junior year, and to where I am today.

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As I entered my senior and fourth year of high school, my mother was entering her fourth year of unemployment.  To a high school kid who worked a part time job to help out at home, exploring the College Board website was a nightmare. All I saw were price tags. I did not know how someone in my circumstances could make college a reality.I was pushed to apply for large, highly-competitive scholarships like the Gates Millennium Scholarship, but had no guidance as to how to write the volumes of essays needed to apply for scholarships of this kind.  Feeling disempowered by the lack of guidance on how to produce a collection of scholarship-winning essays, I used basketball, a medium through which I could confidently attempt to change my circumstance.  

My story is a prime example of sport’s ability to increase access to social networks, resources, and information that many low-income students unfortunately lack. In high school, I was not highly recruited for basketball.  I had not received a single letter of interest from a college going into my senior year. However, like hundreds of thousands of high school athletes around the country, my participation in the sport brought me confidence. From this confidence, I took the initiative and emailed hundreds of coaches on the east coast.  I told them my story, my ambitions and of my interest in their schools. Although only a handful of coaches responded, I was able to build meaningful relationships with them. These relationships allowed me to gain access to information about schools and programs that were offered to support students who faced financial hardships. They also allowed me to connect with administrators, faculty and staff. Ultimately, the relationships I built with the select group of coaches and the resources I then had access to helped me in winning the full-tuition, Educational Opportunity Scholarship that I received from Bard College.  

During my time at Bard, I sought to harness the power of sports to serve low-income students in the Hudson Valley. I have done this by using the game of basketball as a vehicle to extend the privileged access to information, networks, and monetary resources that I had at Bard College to underprivileged youth in the Hudson Valley. In the spring of 2013, I committed myself to using basketball to create and expand opportunity for youth from low-income backgrounds through a program called Dream to Achieve. I worked as the Bard College Trustee Leadership Scholar (TLS), basketball coach, and eventually director of Dream to Achieve Basketball. Dream to Achieve (DTA) is a sports-based youth development program that seeks to combat the hardships that low-income students face by creating a college-attending culture among students from primarily low-income backgrounds in the Hudson, NY area. Like in my own story, a college education is not seen as a realistic possibility for many kids growing up in Hudson.  Over the past three years, I have worked in the Dream to Achieve program to challenge this fear. Using basketball as a vehicle to get students interested in the program, we have offered a number of programs to students. These include free basketball clinics and tutoring in the fall, which allow the Hudson students to interact with Bard students and men’s basketball players, as well as free summer camps, which allows students to explore Bard’s campus, interact with faculty and learn effective strategies to use in the college application process. DTA also offer spots on three travel basketball teams which were completely free to players with condition that they attend daily tutoring. Dream to Achieve has built significant relationships between two communities which are separated by only 20 miles, but seemingly worlds apart. These students now se the second most expensive college in America as a second home. Becuase of DTA and the power of sports hundreds of students now realize college is not only a real possibility, but is also welcoming to students from communities like theirs.  

Many young basketball players’ dreams involve playing under the bright lights of a NCAA Final Four, with the eyes of the world watching in awe of their talent. For much of my life this was my dream as well. As the announcer’s voice filled NRG Stadium with the words “Junior Guard from Bard College: Harry Johnson,”  the crowd rose to their feet and applauded in recognition of me and the 2016 NABC/Allstate Good works team. Although I was on the court of my dreams, ironically, I knew no one in there cared how well I could put a ball in a basket; the audience was thinking about my work off the court. My eyes were still locked in on my mother as I joined in this applause.  Although I pay homage to what the sport of basketball has done for my life as I passionately use the sport to give back to communities like that which I am a product, I could not let this moment pass thinking selfishly about how "I" got here. The moment was bigger than me. It was bigger than some award.  If only for a few moments, I joined all those in attendance and applauding in front of their televisions at home to pay homage to the ability of sports to change the world we live in.