“Our simple goal is to make sure each student finishes high school, goes to college, or has a real good alternative plan,” explains Robert Graham, executive director of the nonprofit, year-round sports and education program known as The Santa Barbara School of Squash (SBSOS). “So far, we’ve been 100 percent successful. Every single one of our students has been the first in their family to go to college.”
Just like Robert himself — modest, steady, committed — the School of Squash, which was founded in 2006, has been making a great impact in our community by using squash as a motivating factor. Students from 5th to 12th grade who qualify for the National School Lunch Program are guided to realize their full potential through a six-day-a-week after-school program that involves academics, community service, mentoring, and sports. The more I find about this transformational program, the more I wonder about the squash part of its name.
“We’ve had so many conversations about changing our name, for it doesn’t tell our story,” acknowledges Robert, who was a founding board member and became the school’s leader in 2014. “People think we’re a sports program for rich Montecito students. People see squash as elitist.”