In skateboarding, our community can get caught up with the idea of “what it means to be a skateboarder.” We buy the clothes, sport the “look” and talk the walk with our own lingo. We even frequent certain bars, skateparks, or support certain musical artists in some hope it makes us “more of a skater.” But what skateboarders tend to forget is being a skateboarder is really about one thing: freedom. As skateboarders, we do our best every day to live life on our own terms in a world that doesn’t understand our way of life. A world where we’re supposed to wear a helmet everywhere we skate, a world of fences we’re not supposed to hop to shred the very skate spots we’re risking arrest for skating. And for every passersby looking at the adult skater in bewilderment or the child risking limb and future employment, the simple truth is we do not give in to anyone’s stereotypes, so why should we give into our own?
The College Skateboarding Educational Foundation is the first global non-profit to raise scholarship awards for student skateboarders. This year alone, they raised funds to help 9 students achieve their academic goals; 9 students who are skateboarders first and foremost. We sat down (virtually) with Keegan Guizard, the Executive Director of CSEF, to discuss the ongoing work their foundation does to support these skaters and their dreams. As you can see from this interview, every skateboarder involved with CSEF is striving not only to better themselves, but skateboarding as a whole. Each and every one of them now stands as a testament to the freedom of skateboarders. That whatever we set our minds to as skateboarders, we can ride away clean.
Dew Tour has been fortunate enough to have CSEF as a vendor at Dew Tour in our non-profit section for the past 2 years. It has been a real pleasure to watch them grow and connect within the skate community in a unique and powerful way. We are excited to bring you this in depth interview with Keegan Guizard on everything CSEF.
Your 2020 recipients were a great mix of women, LGTBQ, international, BA’s and higher degrees from several unique demographic backgrounds. Can you speak on the typical CSEF applicant and how CSEF aims to support a diverse pool of scholarship recipients each year?
There’s a few things here. One, we value education in a broad sense, so we don’t just want to put 18 year olds that are going into the four-year college track. We don’t support any stereotypes of skateboarders and so we also don’t support any stereotypes of what it means to be a college kid. We’re eager to support people who are in trades school, four year undergraduate path, people who are getting masters, or phd or anyone who is trying to better themselves through education. We want to support these people.
Second, we find it really important to have equal representation from men and women and other gender identifying folks. We were stoked for 4/9 of this year’s recipients are women, 4/9 were from outside the united states, there were a couple who represented the LGTBQIA community and we’re just proud to just show people this diverse cross section of who these skateboarders are as people. All of whom want to further their impact on the world through a college education.
As a scholarship foundation, you directly support these students financially but what else beyond finances do you believe these scholarships do to support/represent these student skateboarders?
Obviously, sending a check to their student account is a huge support, because at any level, college costs money; it can be expensive and increase their financial risk, so we want to be there to support them financially. But also, i’ll say this in the context as I will use the recipients words, I have been told this by them directly that being awarded a scholarship, whether it’s released on a website like thrasher, Dew Tour, Jenkem, or not, it validates them to a certain degree that even goes beyond what they’ve already been validated for their efforts. It reinforces to them that they are on a good path. If anything besides the money, it’s just encouraging for student skateboarders to have the stamp of support from an organization like ours. That goes for other organizations too, but I think for people who don’t feel supported for going to school as a skateboarder, it just works as a validation for them, that it’s rad what they are doing.
Often in life, when we set out to help others, we get more in return than what we could ever give. What support/value do each of these recipients bring to CSEF’s goals?
It’s 100 percent reciprocal. Just look at Ha Vet Nyugen, she’s studying to become a Doctor of osteopathy at Touro University in the Bay Area. She’s done work with @skatelikeagirl and she is a big part of her local community helping people feel more comfortable at their local skatepark. Having someone like her, someone who is such a positive force in her local skate community, being able to talk about how she got a scholarship from CSEF, helps us grow in those communities as representatives of us. This goes for each one of our scholarship recipients.
We join forces to become a unique pillar of support in the skateboarding community. There’s a real family element to it as well which is really special. Those who live close to each other end up linking up and skating together. Even those who live across the country from each other support each other on social media. They encourage and validate each other, going skating and having fun together. Which is really beautiful.
CSEF is a non-profit, donation based scholarship reward: can you speak on the challenges of raising funds and what financial hurdles you have to jump to make these scholarships possible?
Starting a non-profit was a new endeavor for me. It was a bit scary because I had no experience in asking people for money systemically, and to back up our mission. Asking individual donors for money and following up with them in a timely manner and highlighting the work that we have done, so they can see it and feel validated in supporting us, is really important and a lot of work. Just being in touch with people who have shown us love and showed us support. Consistency, persistence and staying on top of things.
You know this year, with COVID 19, company budgets have changed or got slashed and this created an even deeper challenge for us in the organization. But just like it can be a challenge for someone to go to school or to battle a trick, it’s been a challenge of us to learn how to get better at fundraising all the time. We definitely have gotten a lot better at it and we’re going to continue to be better at it. We learn all the time and we use what we learn to fundraise better for the future success of this thing.
Dew Tour helped announce CSEF’s 2020 application process about 5-6 months ago, during the initial Covid craziness. Can you speak to the relationship between CSEF and DewTour?
The fine people at Dew Tour offered us a spot to be in their non-profit vendor village, helping us and other non-profits to get out in front of the general public, spread awareness, raise money and we took them up on that offer. That was 2018, our first year and we were there for 2019 as well. We would have been there for this year but you know, COVID and everything. Either way, super stoked to be involved with Dew Tour.
How does an event like Dew Tour help support CSEF and it’s goals?
First of all, Dew Tour is just a great place for people to come together. It took the place of Agenda in some degree functionally, it’s just a good time for people to interact on a personal level and get to know vendors and brands. But for a non-profit, it’s one thing for people who already skate or already interested in supporting education through our work, but an event like Dew Tour you get in front of a wider range of people. Whether that’s locals looking for a swag bag or to see some impressive contest skating, you get a lot more people who otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to skateboarding or an organization like ours. They get to find out what an organization like CSEF is and what we do. It also puts the people of CSEF out there. Our team and our volunteers support each other and become friends which brings an additional element of community not just for us, but everyone who meets us.
With 2021 right around the corner, can you talk about the growth of CSEF and where it has transcended from its founding to today?
When we started it was just three of us, myself, Neftalie Williams, Thomas Barker, and then we started to think about who else we would like to include. In the beginning it was just like any startup or grassroots movement. We relied on family and friends, counting on them to bring it up in conversation or donate funds. We tried to narrow the degrees of separation between people enough to gather more support for it. We did our first event within our first month of announcing CSEF in San Diego and then put together a few online fundraisers and some art show fundraisers in Los Angeles. About a year into CSEF we had our largest art show in Echo Park with art donations from the likes of Atiba Jefferson and Clint Peterson, which helped gain a lot of attention for us. Working with media partners like Jenkem, Thrasher and Dew Tour has helped a lot to get eyeballs on us as well.
We’ve done dinner fundraisers and student sessions at The Berrics, hosted live video interviews with pro skaters, and obviously we were expanding those events throughout 2020 before COVID hit. We had a few things lined up on the East coast we were really looking forward to but had to postpone to further notice. Around the corner we’re working on larger grant opportunities and things of that nature. It’s constantly evolving.
Really the biggest difference has been the amazing people we’ve brought on to our board of directors. Josh Rowe, taking care of whatever media or content needs we might have. Of Course, Ian Smile and Pat Sison, the best art team in the nonprofit world. With these three guys and their expertise and everything they contribute, it’s a huge part of everything we do. I think it was Malcom Gladwell who said it, you are the product of the 5 people you hang out with the most. And it is six of us. [laughs]
What words of encouragement or advice do you have for student skateboarders who are hoping to apply to your 2021 applicant pool?
Applications will be open in late 2020 for 2021, but if they want to know when they can actually apply, they can follow us on Instagram at @csef and subscribe to our newsletter from our homepage at collegeskateboarding.com. It has all the information they need in both of those two places. For those that are in the path of applying to colleges or applying to scholarships in general, it can all seem very daunting. There’s a ton of work that needs to happen before you’re enrolled in school or have funding secured. The best piece of advice I can give to anyone is, don’t let the daunting task of applying for scholarships intimidate you. Don’t be scared by the work that is ahead, as long as you have a rough idea of the direction you are going, and you’re doing a little bit every single day, you’ll be fine. It’s like battling a trick, just chip away at that trick you’re working on and don’t get discouraged. One foot in front of the other.
Can you speak on how people, brands, companies can help support CSEF? Any information for donating, please include it now.
If you want to make a donation please visit collegeskateboarding.com/give and find out more information. You can also go on our website to watch videos of our past events and meet some of the scholarship recipients that we have rewarded and learn more about our story. “Learn more and stay in touch,” is our motto. On our website you can sign up for a one time donation or a monthly donor. Monthly donors are what really help us out the most. It really helps us continue to sustain this entire operation. I do want to say also our board of directors are 100-percent volunteer. There is no payroll at CSEF, whatever money comes in it goes directly out into scholarships and expenses like web hosting or hiring security for events. 100-percent of money donated goes into the scholarship fund and when it’s time to award scholarships, we take a look at what’s in the bank and figure out how many scholarships we can give out. The crazy thing is, every year out of the hundreds of applicants we receive, there are at least a solid 75 applicants that legitimately deserve to get a scholarship. They have the grades, they need the funds, and they are heavy in their skate communities. And we would love to be able to give each and every one of them the help they need. Be it where we are right now, even though we’re growing every year, we still need a lot of help to be able to support these students skateboarders. We just don’t have those resources yet but that’s exactly what inspires me each day to put in the work. The more donations we receive, the more student skateboarders we can support. That being said, if you’re interested in becoming a larger donor, a sponsor or a partner with CSEF, you can email us at [email protected] and see what we can do together.
Last thing, see you in May 2021, for the Dew Tour?
Of course, definitely. Hope to see everyone there safely after things have changed for the better. Can’t wait to enjoy another Dew Tour. If it’s happening we’ll be there.
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