Marquis Taylor

Overview

Raised by a single mother in South Central Los Angeles just six blocks from where the L.A. riots occurred his neighborhood was a scary place to grow up because of the prevalence of violence drugs and gangs. Sports had a huge and positive impact on his life as he found a safe and supportive community through the game of basketball. On the court he learned the importance of commitment teamwork leadership and perseverance. But it was the coaches who truly changed the trajectory of his young life. Marquis coaches gave him the life skills and the self confidence needed to finish high school obtain a college scholarship and dedicate himself to empowering other at risk youth to understand the connection between education and economic empowerment. In 2010 Coaching4Change (C4C) was founded while he studied to receive his Master s in Teaching from Smith College. Marquis understands how to use sports to strengthen young peoples educational experiences. He has dedicated the past 5 years of his life to expanding opportunities for youth through sports based youth development. Coaching4Change s unique model seeks to bolster students' success in low income communities by building an educational pipeline from 3rd grade to college graduation. The innovative model uses coaching and sports based activities as a youth employment and skills development opportunity to increase youth employability and preparedness for college/career. Marquis is an emerging social entrepreneur who has developed innovative and effective ways to increase high quality out of school learning opportunities. Over the last three years he has grown Coaching4Change from a concept that impacted 10 students to reaching over 1000 kids in the Brockton area. Marquis has received an Echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellowship and Root Cause Social Innovation Award in honor of Coaching4Change s accomplishments. The program has been represented in People Magazine Harvard Business Review and the Huffington Post.