San Diego teen starts sports nonprofit clinic for low-income, homeless youth

Sports4Kids’ first clinic of the season happened at Chollas-Mead Elementary, a Title 1 school in San Diego’s Chollas View neighborhood.

“Schools like these have around 85-90% of the students that are low income,” 15-year-old Arden Pala, the founder of nonprofit Sports4Kids, told NBC 7. “Unfortunately, they have lost the access to a professional athletic coach for P.E. because of budget cuts.”

The free clinics help fill the gap with free practices and a professional soccer coach.

Pala founded the clinic. He’s still a full-time student at Francis Parker High School. He was also the youngest person selected nationwide to receive the President’s Council Award in Washington, D.C.

“Well, I mean, it’s not easy,” he said. “The main message I’m trying to bring out is that youth have passion to make a difference. They don’t just do it for college or for community service. I would say, really, a lot of kids have passion.”

Fifth graders Cheryl Tejeda and Robert Lanloye joined the newest Sports4Kids cohort with some friends.

“A lot of people just tell you that you’re not good at it,” Tejeda said when asked if she’s ever been discouraged. “You can decide if you can believe them or not.”

Lanloye sees these clinics as investing into his future professional soccer career.

“I want to make money for my family and my friends … to make sure they don’t go poor or homeless,” he said. “And I want to give some to charity.”

His advice for when you make it to the top was: “Don’t forget where you come from, and don’t get all caught in the fame and stuff.”

Next for Sports4Kids is an initiative called “Gear Up.” It gives high schoolers nationwide the ability to host their own sports clinics for low-income kids in their communities.

Students can apply here.