It was an inspiring and thought-provoking week for our Citizenship Tour students. On Thursday, the group had their final round of speaker meetings with Dr. Michael Lomax, President and CEO of United Negro College Fund, and Keith Wofford, an SEA Board Member and Partner at global law firm White & Case.

UNCF is the nation’s largest private provider of scholarships and other educational support to African American students and Dr. Lomax has served as its leader since 2004. Previously, Lomax was president of Dillard University in New Orleans, a literature professor at Morehouse and Spelman Colleges, and served as chairman of the Fulton County Commission in Atlanta, the first African American elected to that post.

The son of a journalist and a lawyer, Lomax spoke to our group about growing up during the civil rights movement in Los Angeles and Atlanta, marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, and more. “I’ve been a witness to history and on occasion been involved in making history,” Lomax reflected.

Lomax encouraged our students to remain active in their communities. “We all have a responsibility to be civically engaged. We get the democracy that we create.”

Our final conversation of the Tour was with Keith Wofford. Wofford grew up in Buffalo, NY, has practiced law for more than 25 years, and is currently partner of global law firm White & Case’s Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice in New York. Wofford serves as a member of SEA’s Board of Directors and the New York Historical Society. In 2018, Wofford ran for NY Attorney General.

Wofford spoke with our group about his upbringing in Buffalo, his experiences as an attorney, and his perspectives on such topics such as education and criminal justice reform.

Wofford also offered some advice to our students. “Don’t be afraid to have a position because it’s unpopular,” and “You’ve got to figure out how to be bad at something long enough to get good at it,” he said.

What a week it has been! Following Tuesday’s journalism conversations, our Tour students spent Wednesday with two inspiring public officials — Former North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp and Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine.

The first woman to hold such a post in North Dakota, Heitkamp reflected candidly on her experience as a woman in law and politics. She spoke about discovering environmentalism while at Lewis & Clark College, her work with the EPA, and more. “Once you catch the bug, you never lose it,” Heitkamp said. “You never lose the passion for that work.”

Our students asked Heitkamp about noteable moments in her career, such as her vote against the appointment of Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “You survive losing an election, but you don’t survive when you compromise your values,” Heitkamp explained. Senator Heitkamp has met with our students in person in years past, and we were so grateful to have her back with us this summer.

Wednesday’s second session was with D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. Born in Haiti, Attorney General Racine spoke about his identity as an immigrant, an identity that some of our Tour students share. Racine spoke about his legal career, his perspectives on issues around education and mental health, and his passion for sports.

In addition to fueling his love for competition, “sports awakened me to the inequities and disparities all around me,” Racine shared.

“AG Racine was one of the impactful speakers for me because he had this humbleness to him,” said Ku of Capitol Squash. “It was insightful to see how he tries to understand everyone and their perspective.”

Our Citizenship Tour students had a packed day of conversations on Tuesday, speaking with New York Times Opinion Special Projects Editor Meeta Agrawal, Pulitzer Prize winning critic Wesley Morris, NBC News Anchor Lester Holt, Senior Director of NBC News Brett Holey, and National Editor at The Atlantic Scott Stossel.

During the day’s first meeting with The New York Times, Wesley Morris and Meeta Agrawal spoke about their journalism careers and the power of art and pop culture to shape and reflect our values. “The way that I see the world and the things that I find interesting are different than some of my colleagues,” reflected Agrawal, who previously served as Deputy Editor at Entertainment Weekly and Arts & Leisure Editor at the NYT. Morris spoke about his interest in “how to use criticism morally, how to talk about the ways in which art and popular culture shape our values, reflect our values, and the ways in which it can be gatekept.”

Our second session of the day was with NBC News Anchor Lester Holt and Senior Director at NBC News Brett Holey. We were fortunate to be able to speak with Holt before he headed to Tokyo to cover the Summer Olympics!

He spoke to our group about his career path, the importance of journalism today, his experiences covering the pandemic, and more. “Compassion to me is a very big part of what we do,” reflected Holt. “We parachute ourselves into people at the lowest points of their lives and I try to approach these stories with some humility and compassion.” When speaking about the pandemic Holt noted, “I’ve covered some of the worst tragedies, but this was the first time I was covering a story for which I was feeling the same threat as the people I was talking to. We were, and to some extent are, all in this together.”

We wrapped up our busy Tuesday with a conversation with Scott Stossel, National Editor at The Atlantic. Stossel shared some history about the magazine, its abolitionist roots, and then reflected on his personal career. Our students were also particularly curious to hear Stossel’s perspectives on mental health. In addition to editing at The Atlantic, Stossel is the author of the New York Times bestseller My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind.

It was an inspiring and insightful day that left our students with lots to think about!

A highlight for Alana from Racquet Up Detroit was hearing Agrawal’s and Morris’ recommendations. “To uplift Asian Americans after the recent rise of hate crimes, we got the inside scoop on films that Meeta Agrawal and Wesley Morris find very interesting that features and/or highlights Asian-Americans.”

Our Citizenship Tour students embarked on their second day of conversations yesterday, speaking with Former NFL Player Wade Davis, who currently serves as the Vice President of Inclusion Strategy for Product at Netflix.

Davis has consulted with Google, MTV/VH1, 21st Century Fox, AppNexus and others to build inclusive corporate culture and has worked with senior leaders to adapt their leadership styles to meet the needs of their employees.

Davis spoke to our group about his experiences growing up in Shreveport, IL and Aurora, CO, going to school in Utah, and the ways in which he had to “unlearn and relearn” how he saw other people and himself. Davis spoke about his identities as a Black gay man from the South, how he feels being an athlete gave him social capital, and how studying feminism “gave [him] the language wrestle with [his] identity.”

In the videos below, Tour students Alana from Racquet Up Detroit and Caiynin from Squash Haven reflect on the conversation with Davis.

Our Citizenship Tour students began their first day of conversations yesterday, speaking with SEA Executive Director Tim Wyant and SquashDrive Executive Director Patrick Williams. Our group left these talks inspired by the stories of these leaders and their commitments to strengthening the SEA network and bettering their communities.

“I feel inspired and grateful to see how Tim and Pat are both making big differences to bring equal opportunities to our community and people of color.” – Ku, Capitol Squash.

Patrick spoke about how SquashBusters introduced him to community service, exposed him to kids of different races and zip codes, and taught him that “Character defines the kind of person that you are or will be.” His words of wisdom for the Tour students? “Your voice is really powerful. It’s only not powerful when you don’t use it.”

“I feel very motivated and a lot more comfortable to ask questions and in the squash community in general. When we spoke to Pat, I noticed how relatable his background is to mine. His process and experience of joining squash is practically identical to my discovery of squash and how I got involved.” – Caiynin, Squash Haven

In preparation for the Citizenship Tour, participants were asked to reflect on a topic that is important to them, their connection to the issue, and how they’d like to bring that subject to the attention of the public figures and leaders they’ll be speaking with on the Tour. Yesterday, students presented vision boards about these issues to their peers.

Through these early discussions, our students are also getting to know one another better. Cincinnati Squash Academy student Alecia spoke with Tony of Oakland’s SquashDrive about himself and the topic he chose. “Tony is a rising senior from Oakland, CA,” Alecia shared. “He has been with SquashDrive since the 5th grade. Some of his interests are playing soccer, playing guitar, and doing stunts.” The topic Tony chose to present on is veteran homelessness.

“Essentially, what I was saying was that veteran homelessness is a very real problem,” Tony explained. “The one word that comes to mind when I think about it is disrespectful because they have done so much for us, whether we know about it or not, and they deserve so much better.”

We look forward to continuing these discussions on important topics that our students are passionate about in the coming days of the Tour. Tomorrow, our group will be speaking with SEA Executive Director Tim Wyant and Patrick Williams, the Executive Director of SquashDrive.

“Tim Wyant is the co-founder of our program SEA and was the former Executive Director of City Squash from 2002-2013,” said Capitol Squash student Angelina. “I am excited to talk with him and ask him questions! I am also very excited to get to speak with Patrick Williams. He was the first SEA alum to serve as the Executive Director for SquashDrive in Oakland, CA. I can’t wait to ask him about that!”

Yesterday was the first day of SEA’s eighth annual Citizenship Tour! 13 high schoolers and four college students from 12 cities met over Zoom to kick off the experience. Over the next two weeks, the participants will meet with leaders in government, journalism, the nonprofit sector, law, and more. The group began preparing for next week’s lineup of speakers, getting to know each other, and discussing the topics that they are passionate about.

“I’m really excited about the Tour because even on the first day I’ve heard so many great ideas and thoughts that were so interesting. I’m really looking forward to having a place where my voice will be heard! For the next two weeks, I plan to have an open mindset while listening to the panelists.” – Angelina, CitySquash

2021 Tour Participants

Alana – Racquet Up Detroit
Alecia – Cincinnati Squash Academy
Angelina A. – CitySquash
Angelina W. – Capitol Squash
Antonio – SquashDrive
Caiynin – Squash Haven
Chelsea – Squash Haven
Diana P. – Squash Haven
Dianna R. – SquashSmarts
Justice – Steel City Squash
Karolina -CitySquash
Ku – Capitol Squash
Melisa – Santa Barbara School of Squash

2021 Tour Counselors

Savoy Adams, SquashWise, Loyola College ‘23
Leslie Anguiano, Street Squash, CUNY Hunter College ‘22
Felipe De La Cruz, Access Youth Academy, Trinity College ’22
Katelyn Simmons, SquashDrive, Hampton University ‘23

2021 Tour Speakers

Meeta Agrawal
Special Projects Editor, The New York Times Opinion

Wade Davis
Vice President of Inclusion Strategy for Product, Netflix

Heidi Heitkamp
Former Senator of North Dakota

Brett Holey
Director and Senior Broadcast Producer, NBC News

Lester Holt
Anchor, NBC News

Michael Lomax
President and CEO, United Negro College Fund 

Wesley Morris
Critic at Large, The New York Times

Karl Racine
Attorney General for the District of Columbia

Scott Stossel
National Editor, The Atlantic

Keith Wofford
Partner, White & Case

Wednesday kicked off with a meeting with former Masshachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Patrick was the first African American governor of the state, was the U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division under President Bill Clinton, and ran for President in 2020. Patrick attended Milton Academy for high school and went on to attend Harvard for undergraduate and law school. Governor Patrick spoke about community and the importance of education, innovation, and infrastructure. He answered students’ questions about healthcare, incarceration, and the need for a liveable wage. Governor Patrick also shared with our students about his transition to Milton Academy coming from the south side of Chicago and the feeling of “straddling two worlds.”

The day’s second session featured an enlightening conversation with Nisha Agarwal. Nisha is the former Senior Advisor to the Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives in NYC and current Deputy Executive Director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, an organization providing legal advocacy for refugees and displaced people. A child of Indian immigrants, Nisha grew up in Syracuse, NY and went on to attend Harvard College, Oxford University, St. Antony’s College, and eventually Harvard Law School. Nisha spoke to our students about her passion for advocacy and policy, and the work IRAP is doing locally and globally to help refugees. Our students’ Q&A touched on issues such as DACA, climate change, and defunding the police.