MY PROJECT

In the spring of 2016, a student-athlete in the Dream to Achieve (DTA) program came to me and said, “Harry, I don’t think want to go to college.” Historically, numerous socioeconomic factors  contributed to a culture of low 4-year-college attendance in Hudson. In attempts to combat these Hudson-specific socioeconomic issues, Dream to Achieve has developed successful ways to utilize sport as a vehicle to increase educational opportunity and foster a pro-college attending culture in Hudson.  Both, my experiences within the DTA and immersion into the community of Hudson has opened my mind to innovative ways that sports can be used to increase educational attainment in communities worldwide.  

With my Watson year, I will explore the many ways different cultural values and socioeconomic conditions have fostered innovative ways to use sports to enact change in the world around us. This exploration will look at how grassroots foundations as well as professional sports foundations have produced successful usages of sports as a vehicle to create change in the world around us.  More specifically,  I’ll travel to India, South Africa, Australia and the Dominican Republic, where sports are utilized as a means to combat issues such as gender inequality, youth unemployment, social exclusion and elevated dropout rates.