David Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
The Team and the Bridge Alliance are proud to announce the creation of the Engaged Athlete Fellowship.
The Team and the Bridge Alliance are ideally suited to partner in this important endeavor, expanding the Bridge Alliance’s civic ecosystem to a new, promising audience of leaders and influencers.
The Bridge Alliance is a leader in the world of non-partisan democracy reform and civic renewal, bringing hundreds of organizations together to support a movement to co-create a thriving, just and healthy democratic republic. Through their Citizen Connect initiative, people from all walks of life, political parties, race/ethnicity, identities, and religions can become civically engaged. All participants have the common conviction that America is stronger if We the People work together. It isn’t about agreeing on everything; it’s about finding what we can agree on and making it happen.
The Team provides award winning offerings to help athletes become great teammates, leaders, and citizens. Since their inception in 2020, The Team’s innovative approach to civic engagement has positively impacted over 50,000 student athletes around the country. The Team’s past student athlete civic leaders have won many prestigious awards and recognition for their work including invitations to work on programs with major sports figures like NBA star Stephen Curry and Athletes Unlimited’s Cassidy Lichtman. Their stories of modeling innovative forms of civic engagement have been profiled in major media publications like ESPN, The Fulcrum, Teen Vogue, Forbes, and others.
Starting this fall, this inaugural fellowship will empower student athletes from across the country to strengthen non-partisan civic participation on their teams, on their campuses, and in their broader communities.
The Engaged Athlete Fellowship program will focus on three areas:
● Provide a leadership and developmental curriculum developed by esteemed professors, coaches, professional athletes, and civic leaders.
● Provide mentorship, support, and a financial stipend for the athletes personalized civic engagement or service project on campus or in their community.
● Participate in a multi-day all expenses paid summit in Washington, DC to meet other Fellows, participate in workshops, network, and present their work from the year.
The Engaged Athlete Fellowship is led by Joe Kennedy, a 2007 graduate of Northwestern, a former basketball player and coach who served as a special assistant for the Office of Public Engagement at the White House. Most recently, in September of 2022, Kennedy became the first Executive Director of The Team. During the 2020 election cycle, Kennedy connected with Coach Eric Reveno, where they became a major force leading a new college athletics movement to expand student athlete voter registration and create civic resources for coaches and teams. Coach Joe Kennedy is working towards a future where all student athletes and athletic departments establish civic engagement as a priority, and he believes the Engaged Athlete Fellowship can make that dream a reality.
“More than 500,000 student athletes are largely overlooked by most traditional civics programs, and yet, these athletes are often some of the most powerful voices and influential leaders on their campuses. We are building energy around the importance of athletes, coaches, and administrators becoming more engaged citizens. We offer tools and resources to help them shape the future they want to create.”
Joe’s staff includes Hannah Nusbaum (Director of Programming), Elizabeth Ford (Fellowship Coordinator and former Penn Volleyball Player), plus advisors Chase Griffin (Quarterback, UCLA Football), Lisa Kay Solomon (Professor, Stanford d. school), and Eric Reveno (Coach, Oregon State Basketball).
The Fellowship is about impact and action, and athletes are encouraged to dream big. The Team co-founder and Stanford Futurist and Designer in Residence, Lisa Kay Solomon, succinctly and clearly sums up what the Engaged Athlete Fellowship is all about.
“What would make it easy for student athletes to take the first step? Every resource, program, and relationship is aimed to reduce the noise and friction of this moment, and focus instead on foundational moves to support democracy and ignite civic agency.”
Listen to advisor Chase Griffin (Quarterback, UCLA Football) as he tells his story showing how the leadership learned on the field was harnessed to help his community and country.
In the coming weeks we will introduce you to the Engaged Athlete Fellows with the hope of inspiring you to use your time, energy, and skills in whatever way you choose to help your community, your state, and your country.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."