LOS ANGELES -- Dodger Stadium was the place to be on Wednesday, May 29, when The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and the Dodgers hosted a group of students from the Boys and Girls Clubs of America’s annual Pacific Youth of the Year "Honoring our Military & Regional Youth" conference.
The students, chosen from Boys and Girls Clubs of America chapters throughout North America, gathered in the Media Room adjacent to the Dodgers clubhouse for a special panel featuring three Dodgers employees:
Amber Castillo -- design supervisor, planning and development
Alonzo Gonzalez -- community affairs specialist overseeing youth, culture, and education programming
Sebastian Rivas -- senior director, ticket sales
These three Dodgers employees were on hand to provide insight into their respective journeys to where they are today as an example for the students in the intimate audience to gain firsthand lessons about how they, too, may one day forge their own paths into a career in sports.
Castillo spoke of her upbringing in a family of Dodgers fans, and the excitement of the full-circle realization that she had attained a position with her favorite team doing something she’s always loved doing (working on displays and designs of certain visual attractions spotted around Dodger Stadium).
Gonzalez’s path was also circular, in that he was a local aspiring pro baseball player from the Southern California region who made it as far as the upper levels of the Minor Leagues before securing that career in baseball he’d sought -- just slightly adjacent to playing on the diamond itself.
Rivas spoke of his father’s influence on his career in sports, a journey that brought him to the Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) and, eventually, the Dodgers, where he leads a fulfilling role managing a team.
The students listened to Castillo, Gonzalez and Rivas speak for about 45 minutes before asking some thoughtful questions about how they, too, might one day realize their own dreams in sports. Afterward, the group was treated to a tour of Dodger Stadium and a luncheon at the Stadium Club.
“We're so excited to be here today,” said Chaitali Gala Mehta, chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, “partnering with the Dodgers and MLB at Work to welcome young people from the Boys and Girls Clubs, to have a great day to hear from junior executives within the Dodgers organization to learn about career pathways, get a great tour of the stadium and have an opportunity at lunch to network with the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation associates, who are essentially our interns.”
Mehta explained that the students invited to the event were “rising stars” in their respective high schools who earned their way to an invite through their standout performances in school.
When asked during the panel about their backgrounds, a good portion of the 30+ students in the room said this was their first visit to Dodger Stadium -- with some indicating this was their first visit to Los Angeles (or even California in general). It’s that type of context that really touches on the once-in-a-lifetime nature of an event such as this.
It’s all tied to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America’s Pacific Youth of the Year "Honoring our Military & Regional Youth" conference, which has been going on for 75 years and aims to cultivate and instill the principles of “a diverse, global, and integrated world economy.”
Kirk Douglas, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s director of youth development services, spoke to the 25+ year relationship between the organization and Major League Baseball that helped foster a collaboration like this.
“I oversee our Youth of the Year program and support events such as this,” explained Douglas. “We’re here today as a result of our relationship with Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and Community Affairs, to give our Pacific Youth of the Year participants that are here this week -- ranging from as far away as Singapore for our Military Youth of the Year candidates -- as well as our traditional Youth of the Year candidates that we have with the Boys & Girls Clubs.”
The Dodger Stadium event was one part of a week of activities with this project, with additional judging and rounds of scholarships and even a brand new car awaiting the eventual winner of the Youth of the Year Award.
Speaking to the prolonged relationship between the Boys & Girls Clubs and MLB, Douglas cited some standout youth being given the chance to deliver the game ball to past All-Star Games and World Series as among the many highlights he’s seen come to existence through this partnership.
“The big thing,” Douglas contends, “is the lifetime experience that they're going to get today and talk about for their lifetime. The next time they see a Dodgers game, they're going to be invested even more than they were before, after being here, seeing, and having this whole experience. It’s awesome.”