The biggest employers of Dartmouth's Class of 2008 were the investment bank Goldman Sachs and the consulting firm McKinsey, but non-profits Teach for America and the Peace Corps rounded out the top four, according to Forbes.com. The titans of corporate America likely explain Dartmouth's No.1 national ranking when it comes to salary 10 years after graduation, but, as the statistics show, many alumni opt for less profitable career paths.
Nick Beckman '00, who was a Spanish major and pre-med at Dartmouth, is part of a new wave of philanthropists that promote the development of at-risk youth through participation in sports.
Beckman said he realized after graduation that the medical field was not for him. He tried his hand working in consulting only to come to the same conclusion.
It was then that Beckman, an avid sports fan and varsity soccer and track athlete at Dartmouth, stumbled across America SCORES.
"It was long days and nights in either field, but [America SCORES] went toward something I believed in," he said. "It made those deadlines and busy days easier to stomach."
America SCORES was founded in 1994 by a school teacher in Washington, D.C., to give kids an after-school activity. The non-profit is a blend of creative writing, soccer and service learning. It now serves more than 6,000 young people in public schools in 14 cities across the country.
"It got kids involved in soccer three days a week and poetry a few days a week," Beckman said. "It was my first exposure to using sports to help at-risk youth."
Beckman and his colleagues at America SCORES realized that there were many sports-development programs scattered around the country, but they lacked an organizing group.
"We tried to build a movement together," Beckman said. "It wasn't until we had funding from the federal government that we got started."
The coalition, called Up2Us, organizes sports-based youth development programs nationally. Its mission statement is "to increase the impact of and access to sports as a tool for positive youth development".
"We are the over-arching umbrella agency working to impact the use of sports as a positive youth development," Beckman, who is the director of member services, said. "It has really become the intersection of youth development and sports."
The member groups in Up2Us run the programs with kids and conduct research about youth development.
"When America SCORES and Up2Us came along, it was just such a natural fit," Beckman said.
The four main goals of Up2Us are program quality, serving more kids, building the workforce and educating the public. Up2Us claims on its web site that kids who are engaged in athletics are less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol, become pregnant or develop chronic health conditions.
"Sports, when used intentionally, can be a really amazing tool to teach kids discipline, leadership, to be physically active and to be engaged in school," Beckman said.
Beckman is currently the director of Member Services for Up2Us and coordinates the 400 incorporated members. He works to reduce insurance costs, promote organizational efficiency and generally address the concerns of the members.
"What excites me about Up2Us is that it really addresses what is going on and is wrong in the country today," he said.
Beckman noted statistics such as 30 percent of American kids will not graduate high school and 33 percent of schoolchildren will reach obesity by the third grade. He believes that having more kids involved in athletics will attack both of these societal problems.
"[Sports] give kids reasons to be more engaged and a really positive outlet to interact with their peers," he said. "Kids are always looking for ways to socialize, especially in under-resourced areas."
Up2Us strives to steer young people in the right direction in the hopes that it will set a long-term pattern of healthy and positive behaviors.
According to Up2Us' web site, only 3 percent of youth in low-income areas play organized sports.
"If there are no sports, there are risky behaviors," Beckman said. "Twenty million kids have no access to sports teams."
One of Beckman's biggest aspirations for Up2Us is its newly launched Coach Across America program, which follows in the same vain for coaches what Teach for America does for teachers.
"The need for this is huge," he said. "What the programs need the most are coaches. CAA trains them and places them as a coach for a year."
Up2Us will have 125 coaches by the end of the year in approximately 30 programs across the country. The goal is to eventually have 1,000 coaches coast-to-coast.
"Coach Across America is about giving those college athletes a chance to give back to their communities through sports," Beckman said. "It's the first nationwide effort to mobilize AmeriCorps members as sports-based youth development coaches and experts."
Beckman compares the concept of English as a second language courses to sports-based youth development. He noted that, like ESL, it had relatively obscure beginnings and was not well known but has now developed into a research field.
"The concept to change the lives of at-risk youth isn't new, but I do think that the movement in this field is very new," he said. "There have been sports-based development programs around for the past 10 to 15 years, but there has never been a concept."
Beckman considers himself to be a example of how sports can positively impact one's life and set good habits at a young age. He continues to enjoy playing soccer, running and skiing.
"I benefited tremendously from sports in my life," he said. "I am really pleased that what I do every day goes towards helping kids experience what I did."
Beckman said he now can appreciate the values, friendships and continued passion for being active that playing sports instilled in him early on.
"If you are having a bad day, it's great to sink yourself into a soccer game or a long run," Beckman said. "Growing up and at Dartmouth, sports is something I have always done for fun."
For those interested in diving into the non-profit sector after graduation, Beckman advises getting one's feet wet early.
"Take an off-term and find some sort of internship," Beckman said. "I do not think there is any better experience and exposure."
