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Alumnus is working with nonprofit to help kids across the globe achieve academic goals through skateboarding

For Rory Burke (IntlAf), sports are about much more than just stats and scores.

鈥淪ports can have a really big impact in youth development on many levels, and in certain communities, sports can give children access to opportunities not normally offered and often through a medium that鈥檚 approachable for children,鈥� says Burke, who played lacrosse for CU Boulder before graduating in the early 2000s.

鈥淧ersonally, for me, sports provided new opportunities that I don鈥檛 think I would鈥檝e ever experienced and explored without them. I was not only able to travel the country while playing lacrosse at CU, but also globally afterward (as a coach), which was quite mind opening to how big a factor of change sports can be.鈥�

After coaching, Burke learned about a nonprofit in 2012 called听, which offers skateboarding and education programs for about 3,000 youth between 5 and 17 years old in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa. Skateistan focuses on groups who are often excluded from sports and educational opportunities, giving them safe spaces to have fun, build confidence, break down social barriers and access educational resources.

Burke immediately liked what he saw and began volunteering in Cambodia. Today he鈥檚 Skateistan鈥檚 projects and operations director based in Cape Town, South Africa, where he supports all of the organization鈥檚 programming which, he says, prepares kids for adulthood.

鈥淪kateboarding is pretty unique in a way that it literally teaches you that you will fall, and most likely fall down a lot, and you will need to get back up,鈥� Burke says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also an individual sport in a way that allows for creativity and for each student to sort of make it on their own. It鈥檚 just a really interesting way to engage children and allow them to experiment and learn through play.鈥澨�

And on the academic side, Burke says Skateistan offers education programs that focus on creative learning and learning through play.

鈥淚n Afghanistan, we offer more formal programming through our back-to-school program, which is an accelerated learning program for children supported and approved by the ministry of education. It鈥檚 aimed at getting children who鈥檝e been displaced by conflict or are engaged in street working and equips them with the skills and educational level to either get back into school or potentially join school for the first time.鈥�

In 2019, a documentary about Skateistan,听, won an Academy Award. The film highlights the impact Skateistan is making in communities.听

鈥淨uite often as a sport-for-development organization, people see just the sport part and think of the programs as simply skateboarding听with听kids, which is the opposite of the day-to-day operations,鈥� Burke says. 鈥淭he film wonderfully highlights the educational aspect our work, especially our back-to-school program in Afghanistan.鈥�

Burke adds that the most gratifying part of his job has been working with Skateistan鈥檚 teams.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been amazing watching them deliver opportunities to the children in our programs. We work really hard to support the communities as best as possible, so most of our staff are from the communities where we work, so the programming and support comes driven from the community. It鈥檚 great to see how things are contextualized and adapted locally and making an impact.鈥澨�

As for the future, Burke says he鈥檚 optimistic that Skateistan will continue to grow. He explains Skateistan has created听, a global platform that shares knowledge with social skateboarding projects worldwide to broaden their impact.听

鈥淲e鈥檙e also looking at lighter models for program delivery as our skate schools are quite comprehensive,听but they can also be expensive to build and operate,鈥� he says.听鈥淟onger term, I hope to see Skateistan grow in a variety of ways, providing more educational access to children in different areas, and to see Skateistan alums make an impact in their local communities.鈥澨�