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community<br />
DONALD CURTIS DOESN’T<br />
HAVE A SECOND TO<br />
SPARE. As a master’s student<br />
in SOC’s public communication<br />
program, the full-time operations<br />
and program coordinator for the<br />
Center for Community Engagement<br />
and Service, staff advisor for the<br />
Black Student Association and other<br />
campus clubs, and father of twomonth-old<br />
Isaiah with fiancee,<br />
Lisa Coleman, WCL ’11, his calendar<br />
is perpetually double booked.<br />
Yet Curtis, 32, always has time for<br />
one of his kings. The founder of the<br />
Alexandria Kings Basketball<br />
Association, a youth organization<br />
that uses hoops as a tool to enhance<br />
the athletic, academic, and social<br />
awareness of the 8- to 17-year-olds it<br />
serves, Curtis coaches his kids on<br />
the nuances of b-ball and life.<br />
Driving hard<br />
Raised in a single-parent home<br />
in Landover, Maryland, Curtis<br />
struggled in high school before<br />
basketball motivated him to raise<br />
his attendance and grades. After<br />
college, he saw what the sport<br />
did for his brother, for whom the<br />
support of coaches and teammates<br />
provided a path to higher education.<br />
He wants to provide that same<br />
direction for the hundreds of<br />
Northern Virginia youth whom his<br />
nonprofit serves. More than 95<br />
percent of participants enroll in<br />
college, he says.<br />
“Somebody invested a lot of<br />
time and belief in me, and I’ve seen<br />
it work for me and other people,”<br />
he says. “When parents call me and<br />
say, ‘I can’t get through to my son—<br />
can you help me?’ I feel like, wow,<br />
this is where I was meant to be.”<br />
LET’S TALK #AMERICANMAG 9