Luke Walton’s Basketball Camp

This summer, because of a mentor I have at Fox News in LA, I had the incredible opportunity of “covering” Luke Walton’s first annual basketball camp is Los Angeles like a real broadcast reporter would. I went out with a camera guy who shot the footage, conducted on-camera interviews with Luke Walton himself as well as a bunch of the young campers, wrote the story, and produced it with an editor. How cool is that?

Anyway, one of the things that struck me the most from the whole experience is how generous Luke Walton was with his time and his energy when it came to these kids. I mean, how many professional athletes would spend long days in the gym, while on crutches, teaching young campers? It showed me how different Luke Walton is from many other successful athletes. Many celebrities gradually become self-centered. They enjoy their success and put aside anything and everything else, spending their time on silly excesses and throwing away their money on superfluous materialistic things. But Luke Walton seemed to me to be the exact opposite; he’s selfless, giving, and certainly not wrapped up in being successful and famous. After talking to Luke, I realized that his basketball camp is a way for him to use his knowledge and his skills to give back to children in the community. He really came across as a kind hearted regular guy, who truly cares about others.

On that note, what kind of role models do you wish you saw in more of our celebrity athletes and movie stars? Do you think it is someone’s responsibility to be a good role model if society has allowed them to become successful? After all, without public support and fans, where would these people be? I know there are many successful people in a variety of industries, but there is also no shortage among these people setting lower and lower standards for my generation and the next. Should people learn to strive for generosity, kindness, and charitable qualities in addition to success?

Americans everywhere are faced with many economic and social challenges right now. Celebrities and athletic superstars are in a position to influence and inspire young people to meet those challenges. Luke Walton patiently spoke to his campers and explained why he was anxious to have his own basketball camp, remembering that some of the best times of his life were playing at camps where counselors not only taught him the fundamentals of basketball but were genuinely interested in making camp a positive life experience. The way he continued this cycle of inspiration was very obvious at the Luke Walton Basketball Camp.

Take a look at the story and enjoy!

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1uizxCFudk

Safe at Home

A classmate of mine lost her older brother this past year. Until recently, I didn't know the circumstances. But, I later found out that he was shot and killed in the neighborhood in which they live. Our high school is pretty high profile, with most of the kids coming from well to do families and neighborhoods where there are watchful eyes and security is tight. This classmate, however, falls into a different category. She is at our school on scholarship from a family of modest means in a so-so neighborhood where things like this do happen. Not often, but more often than the rest of us would like to think. But having this happen so close to the heart makes you think. About the daily struggles so many people face in our current society. About whether or not a lot of people really "fit in" and feel they can relate to the people around them. About what's fair in our world and what isn't and what we can and can't do to change things. And about the real-life situations around you that can't help but touch you emotionally. After I heard about what happened to my classmate's brother, I started thinking about everything. Does my classmate feel safer at school than at home? Does she feel at place in our school just because she's so bright, or does she feel like it's hard to relate to the people around her? Do some kids put on acts when they come to school in the morning, wearing a happy face even when unsettling things have happened to them at home? My school is a socially inviting environment. We have a small class that allows us all to relate to each other like we are family. I know I feel as if I can be open and honest with friends at my school but is that true of everyone? How many students feel safer and happier at school than in their home environments? How many students struggle with safety in their neighborhoods, domestic violence at home, or physically and emotionally abusive parents? I think a lot of people take for granted that kids are just "happy." But I'm starting to think that this may not apply to the majority of kids. And it makes me wonder what I can do, and what we all can do, to keep students feeling safe in both their home and school environments.

Eliot Spitzer's Daughters

It’s been a little over a month since Eliot Spitzer resigned and while the topic seems to have died down in the press, I’m sure the effects are still lingering in the Spitzer household and especially in the hearts of his wife and teenage daughters. As a teenage daughter myself, I realized not a lot has been written about what effect this must be having on his girls and I thought maybe its time somebody brought up the subject.

Similar to Eliot Spitzer’s girls (who go to Horace Mann), I go to a small private school where all the students have a pretty good connection with their teachers. I can’t imagine what it would be like for me to come into school, day after day, and face my teachers with them knowing something like that about my father. Just thinking about it makes me feel weird. I think if I was in that situation, every time I interacted with my teachers whether it’s to talk about a history paper or my recent math test, I would be envisioning them envisioning the news about my father like headlines in the bubble of a cartoon character. I would be imagining them imagining the television news clips, the internet articles, and the front page pictures of my father and of Ashley Dupre on the covers of everything from the New York Times to the New York Post to New York Magazine. Suddenly New York would feel very small.

Moving on from school and teachers, let’s talk about something as basic as bringing friends home. What are the Spitzer girls doing? As a sixteen year old, I have to admit I like spending a lot of time with my friends both in and outside of school. I especially enjoy inviting my friends over to my house. If my dad was involved in this type of scandal, it could make a normal routine of inviting my friends over pretty awkward. Would my friends run away from my dad? Would their parents even be warning them that he might be looking at them the wrong way and that they should watch out? I mean how strange would that be?

The final blow I think would be the way the Spitzer girls might end up viewing guys because of this whole thing. I know my father impacts how I view boys my own age. As many people have stated, in a sense, a father is a daughter’s first love; an example of how your father treats your mom and even you is often how you come to expect guys to treat you later on. How do you deal with it when your father breaks your mother’s heart, and yours too, when you are so young? I wonder.

When I asked my father about the whole thing, his comment was typical for him. Compassionate but also optimistic. He said that while it hurts him to imagine what Eliot Spitzer’s girls are going through, he also thinks its encouraging to see how resilient young women from successful families can be. The person he pointed to as an example of this: Chelsea Clinton.