5 Reasons to Know...

Who: Jeff DeCelles, Ed.M.’08

What: Master’s student, International Education Policy Program

Where: Barrington, Rhode Island

Why: Although he admits he hasn’t kicked around a soccer ball all semester, former semi-professional player Jeff DeCelles has figured out how to use soccer to make social change, from uniting rival Dominicans and Haitians on the field to utilizing the star power of professional players and role model children to teach HIV and AIDS prevention to young people around the world.

1. Living in the Dominican Republic for a semester while an undergraduate at the University of Vermont, DeCelles joined a group of outcast Haitians who played informal soccer games in local rice fields. After learning they weren’t allowed to join the Dominican league because they didn’t have the “proper” equipment, he organized for a free shipment from a sporting goods store in the United States. Eventually the team got into the league, DeCelles became their coach, and they toured the country. A women’s team soon followed. “All of the racial tension dissolved once they got on the field,” he says.

2. In 2003, DeCelles spent a summer in Zimbabwe volunteering with Grassroots Soccer, a then-fledgling nonprofit that trained professional soccer players and coaches to educate young people in afterschool programs and at refugee camps about the dangers of HIV and AIDS, about reversing the stigma, and where to go for help. He eventually helped start new sites in Ethiopia, South Africa, Sudan, and Liberia.

3. Along with Charles Deutsch, a scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, he has been creating a curriculum that young people in South Africa can use to educate one another about HIV and AIDS, as well as other psychosocial issues. “Professional soccer players are certainly role models, but we also found that peer role models are just as effective in teaching about HIV and AIDS and decisionmaking skills,” he says. “It’s a smart way to approach these problems.”

4. At the Harvard Graduate School of Education, he cochairs an international film club, which shows films every other Friday and sponsors guest speakers to lead after-film discussions.

5. During his first semester, he volunteered at an elementary school in neighboring Somerville teaching children how to make puppets.

About the Article

A version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Ed., the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Respond to this story with an e-mail to the editor.

photo by Martha Stewart