American Magazine, Nov. 2013

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