Nnamdi Asomugha pitching in to help high school academic achievers see colleges
It's always nice to see professional athletes make a difference in their community, whether its their hometown or adopted locale. For Nnamdi Asomugha, he's helping both of those areas as well as the city that came in between, stepping forward to try and set up underprivileged students land a collegiate future.
As noted by the Los Angeles Times, Asomugha is taking a large crop of academic high achievers from schools in Los Angeles (where he attended Los Angeles (Calif.) Narbonne High), Oakland (where he began his All-Pro NFL career with the Raiders) and Philadelphia (where he currently plies his trade for the Eagles) to Chicago to introduce them to colleges in the Windy City.
The goal is to try and make college more accessible for students who might otherwise not consider an academic future because of their low-income background. Incorporated in the Asomugha Foundation's larger portfolio, the trip to Chicago is encompassed in the organization's ACTS initiative; that's Asomugha College Tour for Scholars.
In Chicago, the high school students will tour schools and likely get some time in a museum or possibly even a sporting event. Past tours of Boston included a Celtics game while an ACTS journey to Washington incorporated trips to many of the Smithsonian museums.
While some might question whether the ACTS trips truly make a difference, they certainly don't hurt. The Asomugha Foundation notes that ACTS alumni have gone on to attend Georgetown, Howard, California-Davis and the Cleveland Institute of Music, among a handful of other schools.
Where this crop ends up remains to be seen, but they all owe Asomugha a certain amount of gratitude for trying to help open up a brighter future. It would be all to easy for the star cornerback to sit back and enjoy the opulent wealth on offer after the ink on his $60 million deal with the Eagles was first dry in July. Instead, Asomugha is still actively pitching in to help the places he calls home, and that's always nice to see.
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