"With SEI, my life took off in a whole new direction..."

In the late 80’s, drug dealers and gangs were moving into Woodlawn Park, where 14-year-old Rukaiyah Adams hung out every day, practicing her street-tough attitude. When she heard SEI was admitting girls to their popular basketball camp, she signed up. When she arrived late again one day, an SEI Coordinator pulled her aside and said, “You have to choose who you’re going to be. Either you’re going to be one of those hoodlums in the park or you’re going to be with us in the gym.” Rukaiyah explains, “That day I chose to stay in SEI, and my life took off in a whole new direction. I am the first person in my family who has ever attended college.”

After earning a full scholarship to prestigious Catlin Gabel School, Rukaiyah used the wisdom she gained in the gym to help navigate the unfamiliar territory she faced. “We learned to keep the ball in play, to find an opening before you stop dribbling. When I’m faced with an obstacle in life, I always look for the opening.”

Rukaiyah continued to find the opening, from becoming Miss SEI, to graduating from Stanford Law School, to becoming a corporate lawyer. Yet she sees her most important job as helping to create the kind of community wealth that she benefited from at SEI. Her resume of volunteer work with homeless moms, civil rights organizations, AIDS prevention, and more reflects her commitment to this goal. “There is nowhere in the country that you will find a center like SEI. We all need this kind of vision to keep advancing.”

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