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American Magazine: November 2013

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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

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