 |
Kent’s Bright Lights of the Right to Dream Academy
By Arden Reynolds, courtesy of Kent News |
As Americans, we are born into this world believing that it is our inalienable right to dream. Big dreamers, like John F. Kennedy, envisioned placing a man on the moon and set a goal for the project of just ten years. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, has forever changed the way the world communicates, and his far-reaching genius touches almost every aspect of our lives. In short, America’s cradle of possibilities has driven people to our shores since the founding of this great nation. However, there are countries around the world where the dreams of the citizens seem so remote and so unlikely that the simple right to dream seems to quietly slip away. Tom Vernon founded the Right to Dream Academy hoping to rekindle this claim and give underprivileged youth the possibility to reach their full potential. In his mission statement, Mr. Vernon states that the goal of the Right to Dream Academy is “to offer underprivileged children who are drawn from a background of extreme poverty the opportunity to reach their true potential in life, through sport and education, and to ensure that these children are motivated and empowered to make meaningful, lifelong contributions to their community and country.” This year, Kent is very fortunate to have three graduates of the Right to Dream Academy: Bernard Abagali, Ibrahim Mutala, and Abdul “Oscar” Umar.
From a young age, the boys were prepared by the academy to take their skills and potential to the next level, both academically and athletically. As eleven-year-old boys, Bernard, Mutala, and Oscar entered the academy knowing that they would find rigorous competition on the pitch, but also a credible path towards a better education. During the time that the boys spent at the academy, they were exposed to new opportunities and cultures, and were able to learn other valuable life lessons beyond the soccer field. Mutala says that the “academy helped me realize that soccer was not the only gateway to one’s future, but that education helped, too. Due to the limited opportunities in Ghana, I realized that one does not rise straight to the top as a professional soccer player. With the benefit of Right to Dream, I took my pen and books and began to focus on school work, which ultimately brought me to Kent.”
Kent has a unique and special relationship with the Right to Dream Academy. Along with Hotchkiss, we are the one of the first New England boarding schools to foster this bond with the Academy and welcome some of its boys in order to offer the opportunity to continue their growth in these communities. Bernard and Oscar were the first to enter the gates of Kent School in the hope that they would be able to continue to evolve both academically and athletically. In the following year, Mutala made the long journey to Kent to join the third form. Kent has been a great experience for the boys. Their first year, Oscar and Bernard were members of the KENT Varsity Soccer team which made it to the quarterfinals of the New England Championships. This past fall, all three of the RTDA boys were members of the KBVS team and were finalists in the New England Class ‘A’ Championship. In the upcoming season, Oscar and Bernard will be two of the three captains on the Kent squad.
Head Coach Mr. Tim Booth says, “although the boys are phenomenal athletes and have been a tremendous contribution to the Kent School soccer program, I am so infinitely more impressed with the success that they have had away from the pitch: in class, society and the larger contributions that they are making to the community.” While at Kent, Mutala, Oscar, and Bernard have taken advantage of the many opportunities that the community has to offer. Furthermore, the boys have brought the solid values taught to them by the Right to Dream Academy to Kent and have selflessly given back to the community whenever possible. Last year, Coach Booth, Oscar and Bernard traveled up Route 7 to the Cornwall elementary school to visit a 5th grade class, which was studying African history. While in the classroom, Oscar and Bernard engaged the children with a twenty-minute discussion of their culture, family and experiences and then proceeded to take questions from the class. At one point, Oscar even took off his shoes to show the children the scars he had on his feet from playing barefoot as a child. “This was a very powerful experience for me,” Coach Booth later remarked. The admiration that Coach Booth feels for the boys is reciprocated in full. Bernard adds, “Coach Booth and Coach Robey are great people. I am happy to have them as my coaches because they don’t just coach us, but they take care of us when we are troubled or when we need help. They are like our fathers here at Kent.”
The Right to Dream boys are an inspiration to the entire community of Kent School. Their unflagging work ethic, great athleticism and gentle demeanor are the most obvious of their gifts. In the future, it looks as if they will go on to some (very lucky) university, where they will certainly continue their sport and further their education. The Kent community will watch with interest as they go forward and shape not only themselves, but also quite possibly the future of Ghana. They are the embodiment of the Kent motto: Temperatia, Fiducia, Constantia. Their courageous efforts in making their dreams a reality have been an inspiration to us all.
