‘What is this video, and why is there no skateboarding in it?’ you might be asking. A valid question, to be sure. However, while there is no actual skateboarding in it, there are skateboarders. Seven of them, to be exact, reacting to the news that they’ve just been awarded one of the College Skateboarding Educational Foundation’s (CSEF) second annual scholarship gifts. Keegan Guizard, CSEF’s director, told them he wanted to schedule one more interview, even though the scholarship recipients had already been decided on, then delivered the good news via video chat and recorded it. It’s not much, but in a world where the wrong Amazon is burning and oppression is spreading like, well, wildfire, it’s the positivity we need today to keep from closing our laptops and walking slowly into the sea, never to return.
Beyond the pure, unadulterated joy of watching people get free money for college, simply for being skateboarders who are working to better their community, the fact that something like CSEF even exists gives us hope too. One of the best ways to counter the environmental degradation and unchecked nationalism that are, respectively, fucking up our planet and sending civilization back to the dark ages, is to promote education. An educated population is a population that doesn’t fall for shit the Trumps and Bolsonaros and Boris Johnsons of the world are selling. The whole point of the CSEF is to support skateboarders in their academic pursuits, and to smash the stereotype that skaters are a bunch of dumb punks who don’t care about the world they skate in.
“We’re a nonprofit that gives college scholarships to skateboarders,” Guizard explained. “It exists for a few reasons, but it all kind of revolves around providing the opportunity for skaters to be come educated, and to kind of eliminate that stigma that you have to be a burnout skateboarder.”
The scholarships are decided on a few factors, including financial need, academic performance, and, perhaps most importantly, community involvement. Their application essay prompts asks if skaters to document their community projects, be they DIY pours or internships at skate NGOs. One of their previous year’s recipients was chosen in part for his involvement in pouring the famous Lower Bob’s DIY in Oakland.
That year, scholarship amounts were $500, while this year’s scholarships were increased to $1000. Funding for CSEF comes mostly from DIY fundraisers, booths at large skate events, and other direct donations.
“The goal is to grow it to the point where we can provide full-ride scholarships for multiple people across the country,” Guizard said. “Eventually, on an even grander scale, internationally. We just want to grow to the point where skateboarders, anywhere they are, no matter who they are, have a good chance of getting hooked up. We just want to have enough money to hook up as many people as possible that are legitimately deserving.”
We originally chatted with Guizard in Huntington Beach, when he stopped by to visit our booth at the Vans US Open, but it was no surprise to see him again at Pushing Boarders, an event whose entire premise is that skateboarders are smart, engaged individuals who care deeply about the world around them. Pushing Boarders is organized in part by Re-verb Skateboarding, an organization that “fosters skater-led and innovative research on skateboarding, encourages debate about lesser spoken topics in skateboarding and seeks to build a network for more skateboarders to be able to write about skateboarding at university,” and features skate charities and NGOs from across the globe. Skaters might not be able to singlehandedly stop the refugee crisis in Greece or improve living conditions in Palestine, but we’re at least trying to make it all suck a little less.
Anyway, what we’re trying to say is that the CSEF is one of many worthy causes, and applications for their next round open in Fall, about a month after school starts. If you’re a skater who is doing something to help unfuck the world (which you really should be, scholarship money or no scholarship money), keep your eyes peeled for an announcement on CSEF’s Instagram. And if you’re well past your school years and just wanna support, hit up their donation page.
