Denva’s Story

Campus to Court Collaboration

I think it’s important for young people to take an active role in creating social change and creating progress. Throughout history, that’s always been what has happened – every main social movement throughout the last 50 to 100 years has been rooted in the rise of young people understanding what’s going on and wanting to make a great change. 

As someone who is a part of the National Society of Black Engineers on my campus, as well as Men of Color Alliance, I saw the work that the non-profit Hidden Genius Project was doing for young men of color in STEM.  There was a lot of intersection between what they were doing and the things I care about, so I chose to organize a basketball tournament Challenge with Positive Tracks to support Hidden Genius’ mission.

Throughout the Challenge planning process, Positive Tracks supported me on a mentorship level. Partnering with them meant learning, ‘OK, what would it look like to actually put the tournament together? How do I properly reach out to the Hidden Genius Project, letting them know ahead of time that this is happening, and that we want to raise money for their organization?’. Positive Tracks helped me organize the logistical aspect of the event and even the marketing piece. They have a place on their website where you can put in all the details of your tournament and then they give you advice on how to market it on social media and how to spread the word throughout your campus – like word of mouth, grassroots marketing. Just being able to have a detailed plan of knowing what to do and how to get the word out was huge.

I found that working on this Challenge, and the entire Captain process, wasn’t just about helping The Hidden Genius Project, it was also about supporting myself and really understanding the power of collaboration and the power of community. Through this process, my leadership skills absolutely grew. I learned that I’m someone who loves collaborating with other people and I realized I’m someone who is also willing to take risks. I had to reach out to people about my cause and kind of get outside of my comfort zone which definitely grew my confidence.

Part of Positive Tracks’ support was also in creating a sense of community, you know, like being able to meet everybody who’s part of Positive Tracks, and talk to them about previous Challenges, experiences that they’ve had, or what other Challenge Captains have done. I think knowing that you have a group of people around you who support what you’re doing, believe in the call that you believe in, and are there to help you through every step of the process, is very important. Especially since it was my first time ever doing something like this.