“SEI teaches the moral values we all need to live by…”

Ten-year-old Aaron Miles couldn’t wait any longer. He’d waited his whole life to play in SEI’s basketball camp and he didn’t care if you had to be eleven. He planned to sneak in by getting down to the registration line early and blending in with the big boys — except he was a day too late.

The next year he and his buddies John and Michael Lee were lined up hours before registration opened. They knew the line would grow so long that players wouldn’t get in, and that wasn’t going to happen to them.

Aaron thrived at SEI, playing and learning SEI values that summer and the seven summers that followed, winning the state basketball championship and serving as student body president for Jefferson High School in 2000. He continued on with a full scholarship to the University of Kansas, where he led his team to two final fours and earned a record for most assists in his conference. He finished up with a degree in communications and a spot in the NBA.

This summer Aaron returned to Portland to visit the kids in SEI’s basketball camp and talk to them about their future, and to help his former SEI classmates throw a benefit for Jefferson High School.

Aaron treasures the relationships and values developed by SEI. “My family is my foundation and SEI kept building on that by teaching the SEI Standards and the moral values we all need to live by.”

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