National Youth Sports Program

NYSP Opens Notre Dame to Children on the Margins

CSC News & Reflections
Summer 2004

On the first day of the National Youth Sports Program, a continuous line of South Bend children stream off the bus at Notre Dame’s Stepan Center to begin 25 days of sports, arts and education.

Under the warm summer sun, the program directors and student counselors begin to sweat as the count passes 300 children, then 400, finally stopping around 425 children.

They had over 30 percent more children than 2003—a record year for the 14-year-old program.

For the Center’s program directors, Rebecca Pettit and Carl Loesch, and student counselors, the challenges of running a sports camp for so many children from economically depressed areas in South Bend are formidable. The rewards, though, are similarly great.

“At the end of camp,” said Pettit, director of Urban Programming and Initiatives at the Center, “we see such dramatic changes in these children.

“We see improved attitudes, an enthusiasm for our sports and arts programs and warmth for Notre Dame and its campus.

“This is direct service that has tangible results to 400 families in the community,” added Pettit.

“This is a story that will be told over and over again among countless families.”

The National Youth Sports Program at Notre Dame is one of 200 such camps held on campuses around the country. It is funded in part by the NCAA, but also though in-kind donations from Notre Dame, the City of South Bend, the Andrews McMeel Scholarship Fund and private alumni donors.

The benefits of NYSP are many. For the children, the sports camp provides a structured and caring interaction with the Notre Dame community.

For student camp counselors, this is a chance to engage in their local community and see the impact of service-learning.

For the University, it is a powerful step toward integrating and supporting the South Bend community.

‘Being pushed to the limit’

Of the 40 students working with the program, 25 partipate with the Andrews McMeel Summer Service Project. The other students are a combination of AmeriCorps volunteers and student employees.

For many, they are pushed in ways that stretch them to limit of what they’re capable of.

For Tricia Floyd, a Notre Dame varsity track & field athlete, NYSP has been an intense commitment. But, at day 23 of the program, she has seen the results.

“You see a total change in the children. You see what discipline and love can do for them,” she said.

In Floyd’s case, it’s part of her preparation to be a social worker after graduation.

Pettit echoes these comments.

 “This a different level of service. This is the kind of service that stretches you almost thinner than you can go,” she said.

“Students walk away with a new understanding of service—and they walk away with a different sense of children who live on the margins. They see and understand how these childrens’ lives impact the way they behave, and the things we can do to change that behavior.”

Every year, said Pettit, students realize that they want to be teachers—that they want to make a difference in childrens’ lives.

“Sometimes,” she admits, “students discover that maybe they don’t want to be teachers after all.”

Where the rich white kids go

For the University, NYSP affords an opportunity to open its doors to the South Bend community and expose the values that define the culture and traditions.

Pettit concedes that many of the campers have never been to the campus and view it with a mix of suspicion and detachment.

“They think it’s someplace where rich white kids go to school.”

But, over the course of the camp, they see the students and staff that make up the University. “Especially important,” said Pettit, “are the counselors, many of whom are minorities, who show the students that going to the University of Notre Dame is an attainable goal.

“They begin to think that this is a place where they can go school. Or at least that people with their backgrounds can, and do, attend college.”

Moreover, said Pettit, NYSP seeds in the campers an affection for a campus that stands so prominently in South Bend.

‘He Needed a Reason’

For Pettit, the power of NYSP comes from the many stories she’s heard over her time with the camp.

She recalled, for example, the story of one child who was referred to the camp by a local social worker.

“This was a kid who was well on his way down a bad road.”

Over the course of the camp, the young man grew more and more engaged in the program and activities.

By the end, the camp counselors voted him “Most Improved Camper,” an honor that meant he would be recognized at the parents’ barbecue.

On the day of the ceremony, his father arrived wearing a suit and beaming with pride.

After the ceremony, he confessed to Pettit, “My son needed a reason to do well. I think this has given it to him.”