Elhadji Mare graduated from StreetSquash in 2014 and since that time, he’s been able to hop through each new stage of his life thanks to the organization’s help.
He received a Posse scholarship with the help of StreetSquash and ultimately attended Trinity. Though Trinity is a top squash school, he didn’t play there as it was very competitive and he didn’t want it to take away from his focus on the future.
At first he wanted to be an engineer, but ultimately transitioned to psychology. But his true passion is fashion and StreetSquash helped get him set up with an internship at Proper Cloth, a men’s clothing brand while in school. He then secured another internship at StockX with the help of StreetSquash.
“StreetSquash has helped me so much in my personal career,” Elhadji said.
Elhadji is still at StockX, now as a full-time employee, working as a Content Manager and Copywriter. The job is in Detroit which is also home to Racquet Up Detroit, an urban squash program also part of the Squash & Education Alliance. Elhadji volunteers there and recently joined their board.
It was 2007 when Elhadji was first introduced to StreetSquash. He first got involved in the organization through the summer program which his mother found out about during a meeting at Thurgood Marshall Academy. Elhadji was hesitant at first since he didn’t know what squash was and he wasn’t into sports. He had tried baseball earlier in life but hated it. His mom forced him to give StreetSquash a try.
Immediately, Elhadji realized he was pretty good at squash and he wanted to keep doing it. When he first started with the program, there was no dedicated facility. He recalls doing the summer program on the campus of Colubmia.
“It was a lot of fun running around on campus, being out of the house, and playing squash,” Elhadji said.
He remembers building a really strong rapport with the staff and said StreetSquash felt like a second home.
“StreetSquash helped me realize there was a lot more to myself than I thought there was,” Elhadji said. “Just it helping me through the journey of growing up, going through puberty, and being a teenager. They helped me prepare for college, helped with school, and helped with my social skills.”
Elhadji says he loves how embedded in his life the StreetSquash staff was and it allowed him to feel comfortable with who he is. He said in middle school he would get picked on for how he dressed and the kind of music he liked but at StreetSquash he was accepted for who he was.
“My time at StreetSquash has given me so much confidence in myself and understanding who I was and am,” Elhadji said. “It helped me know I’m capable of doing more than I know. It pushed me to achieve goals and keep working on myself. They were always trying to encourage me to do the best that I could.”
