Jordan Rogers, top right, during a recent discussion with our high school students. Jordan is the Program Leader for The Bridge Golf Foundation and recently fielded some questions from Executive Director and Co-Founder Farrell Evans.
FE: What led you to work in youth development?
JR: During my sophomore year at Yale, I started volunteering as a tutor with an urban sports program called Squash Haven. The idea of helping younger kids to obtain squash scholarships to boarding schools and colleges was new to me, and seemed like a very profound way to do good in the lives of others. When I graduated in 2012, I knew that I didn’t want to be in a traditional school classroom, yet I still wanted to do work where I could talk to people about ideas. After a stint in politics, I spent a year working at another sport-based youth-development organization. I found the work to be very rewarding and decided to take my skills and talents to a higher level with The Bridge Golf Foundation.
FE: Tell me about your upbringing in Oklahoma. How did that experience shape your outlook on the world?
JR: I was a bit of a fish out of water. My parents moved to Tulsa for work, shortly before I was born. Oklahoma is a highly insular state with a low population density, and if your family hasn’t been there for several generations, it can be tough to develop deep or meaningful relationships with many of the people there. Growing up in the wake of 9/11, my status on the outside helped me to develop an affinity with “fellow outsiders” – immigrants, religious minorities, and so on: people who taught me a lot about the world. Tulsa is the state’s second largest city, so while my childhood wasn’t rural, there weren’t as many opportunities available for advancement as there are in larger cities. It taught me to be grateful for the educational experiences that I did receive, and to be responsible for facilitating additional intellectual growth for myself outside of formal educational settings. To this day, any time someone gives me a book that teaches me something new, the gesture still stirs a warm sense of appreciation in me.
FE: At Yale, you studied French Literature and African-American Studies. How did that education prepare you to work with our young men?
JR: My education at Yale taught me to reject the notion of following tradition blindly, in favor of committing myself to working in the traditions of individuals whose actions have personally inspired me. As a Yale grad, I’m acutely aware of the responsibilities and privileges that my degree represents. If you look at the number of presidents, justices, and statesmen who have graduated from the institution, it is evident that their educational philosophy places a large degree of value on public service.
FE: What’s a typical program day for you?
JR: On a regular day, I arrive at the Learning Center around 11 am, answer some emails, do research on upcoming units that Reggie and I are planning, and plan lessons. Whenever I need to take a break, I read The Times or pick up a golf club and ask Randy to help me improve my swing. It feels like the day really begins once the boys start to arrive at 3 pm; they bring the energy, and the staff thrives off it when we teach our lessons.
FE: You helped launch our Service Learning and Philanthropy sequences in the After School program. Why is it important that we teach the young men how to serve?
JR: Children depend on us to give them context for understanding the world. They don’t listen to everything we tell them – no child ever does – but they spend a lot of time watching us. They are looking for cues, cobbling together traits and experiences gleaned from the kinds of men that they themselves want to become someday. For them to see us caring about their well-being here in Harlem, as well as the well-being of others in Zambia and elsewhere, shows them that there is a world bigger than them that they must learn about and experience for themselves. When we equip them with the knowledge required to be aware and unafraid of everything that happens in the world, it expands their humanity and appeals to ours.
FE: One of your colleagues, Teaching Professional Randy Taylor, has aptly said that we’re in an emergency with the work we’re doing with our young men. NGOs and major corporations are beginning to take an interest in the kind of intentional work that we’re doing with this very at-risk population. What would you say to President Trump if you could meet him in the Oval Office to make the case to support work for young men of color?
JR: I would tell him that we are in the business of disproving the myth of rugged individualism. Like in politics, our success depends on our ability to connect and communicate with people. We have to be honest about the fact that we function best when we are humble enough to ask for help when it is needed, and that any meaningful success will never be attained alone.
FE: What are you reading right now and why?
JR: I’m reading John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” Last semester, I taught a unit on poverty and the management of natural resources, and the Dust Bowl came up in our discussion. Given the current political climate, I figured it would be useful to revisit this chapter of American history. The novel has given me plenty of food for thought.