"Talent is universal, even if opportunity is not..."

A few years ago, I shared a story about a remarkable then third-grader – Tanitoluwa Adewumi. At the time, Adewumi was an 8-year-old, who arrived to New York City, after fleeing Nigeria. He had just won his age group at the New York State chess championship. His story is one of those ones that gets highlighted in press because he has succeeded against all odds. He was undefeated at the chess championship, despite only learning chess a year before the tournament. His family was seeking asylum and was living in a homeless shelter while he attended the local public school. Because of the dynamics of the state, he was up against children with chess tutors who have many more resources and training. And yet… he won.

This month, in the fifth grade, he came out of a chess championship with a rating of 2223, making him a national master. He’s only been playing chess for three years, and now has his sights set on becoming the youngest grandmaster. He’ll have two years to try and reach that goal.

While it’s easy to look at the odds stacked against Adewumi, I want everyone to instead consider why it was that he did succeed. I want you to consider the myriad of reasons that make it not unexpected that he would reach this great honor. First, he has two very supportive parents – apart from their tireless support of his education, his mom takes him around to practices and tournaments, and his father helps him practice on his laptop each evening. Over the last few years, they have saved and hired a grandmaster to coach him three times a week. Second, Adewumi is gritty and works incredibly hard – his chess teacher from the third grade claims he used to do 10 times more chess puzzles than typical kids his age. Third, Adewumi had a coach and mentors at his school who saw his potential, and helped him learn and master chess. They, along with his new grandmaster, spent time nurturing his talent and honing his skills. And last, perhaps more happenstance of all, his homeless shelter was in a school district that had a chess club.

It’s from these reasons for Adewumi’s success that I hope to draw lessons on how we can better serve our 6,000 Impact Network students. I found this quote incredibly powerful: “Tani is a reminder that refugees enrich this nation — and that talent is universal, even if opportunity is not.”

The full article is here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/16/opinion/Sunday/chess-champion-8-year-old-homeless-refugee-.html and update is here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/opinion/sunday/homeless-chess-champion-tani-adewumi.html

-Reshma