When Fatou Sangare joined StreetSquash in 2010 as a 10th grader, she felt immediately welcomed. The organization made her feel like part of the family on day one.
“I’ll never forget that first day when [former Squash Director] Tony [Maruca] said, ‘oh Fatou! We have another Fatou,’” Fatou said. “He just greeted me with such a smile.”
From that moment, she was hooked with the program.
“I loved being around and being able to learn about a different sport I’ve never heard of before,” Fatou said. “It was great being able to get extra help with homework and just have an activity to do after school rather than going home to sit down and watch T.V.”
Like many students, Fatou also had ample opportunities to travel during her time with StreetSquash.
“I loved going to ‘Teams,’ I loved going to ‘Individuals,’” Fatou said. “I went to Boston, I did a doubles camp in Denver, and that was my first time in Denver.”
But one of her favorite trips was when she traveled internationally to Central America, carrying out a service trip in Nicaragua.
Fatou also embraced the opportunity to learn.
“I loved taking college courses because I was so excited to go to college,” Fatou said. “Learning about that earlier than others really helped me with my college life.”
Fatou says she took a math pre-college course at Columbia as well as a world history pre-college course.
“I ended up getting a Bachelor’s in history so it worked out I got into that class,” Fatou added.
Fatou went to college in Cazenovia, near Syracuse, for two years before coming back to New York City to complete her college degree at City College.
“I got yearly visits on campus from the CASAS team and my highlight was getting care packages,” Fatou said. “I would get little hand-written notes, pencils, and mixed candies. Just fun little things that reminded me of my time at StreetSquash.”
Fatou had trouble nailing down exactly what she wanted to do while in school at first but ultimately knew she wanted to work in political journalism. These days, Fatou is splitting time working at NPR affiliate WSHR on Long Island, and The Karamo Show, a syndicated program produced and distributed by NBC.
She says her time at StreetSquash has encouraged her to remain motivated.
“That was a really big thing at StreetSquash,” Fatou said. “If you didn’t have homework you could either volunteer with another group or read a book. But you always had something to do and I kind of took that with me. I always try to keep myself busy.”
For any students considering giving StreetSquash a try, Fatou has at least one major reason to get involved with the program.
“They’ll have lifelong friends that they’ll have the opportunity to make,” Fatou said. “Some of my best friends to this day are from StreetSquash even though we didn’t go to the same school. I also love the opportunity to connect with the program after you graduate.”
