Lunchtime Speaker: Beyond the Field: The 30-Year Legacy of the Poet-Athlete

What started in 1994 as a small soccer team for 15 girls at Marie Reed Elementary has evolved into a city-wide movement, transforming thousands of “poet-athletes” across North America every year.

Katrina Owens, Executive Director of DC SCORES, shares the organization’s journey from a grassroots experiment to a cornerstone of Washington, DC’s youth development landscape. Katrina will pull back the curtain on the “whole child” model—a unique integration of soccer, poetry, and service-learning—and explain why the magic happens at the intersection of athletics and creative expression. Discover how building a child’s confidence on the pitch and their voice on the stage creates a ripple effect of community leadership and lifelong resilience that extends far beyond the final whistle.

Featuring:
Katrina Owens, Executive Director of DC SCORES