In this soccer story, a different type than the ones you may be used to hearing out of Santa Clara, Ben Davidson ’20 found himself literally immersed in a meeting of cultures.
And what the Jean Donovan Summer Immersion Fellow found there was brotherhood.
It was as Davidson worked with 4Worlds, a non-profit in Portland, that he found himself on the field with kids from the Congo, Bhutan, and Kenya. It was his job to set up pickup games and organize tournaments.
Without shared languages or customs, and sometimes without cleats, the kids and Davidson found a shared sport—soccer.
As he left at the end of the summer, one of the kids asked, “When are you gonna be back next year?” and Davidson realized a community had developed through a shared love and space of a makeshift soccer field.