J. Wood Platt Caddie Scholarship Trust reposted this
It’s strange to say that a game changed your life, but for me that was definitely the case. This is a quick follow-on to my post last week about caddying and how it positively impacted my life. Last week, I had the good fortune of playing in the J Wood Platt caddie scholarship trust benefit at the course I grew up caddying at (Stonewall Golf Club in Elverson, PA). The course was in perfect condition. The weather was perfect as well. I was able to play with two younger, J. Wood Platt alumni, recently out of college. A member of the JWP staff also joined us. Two went to Penn State, the other to Cabrini. They had similar upbringings in blue-collar families. J. Wood Platt was the leg up for all of us to get into and through college. While the scholarship was a big help for starting out in adulthood, what’s probably more important is the intentional linking that JWP does of current scholars with alumni. The JWP staff go out of their way to match current scholars up with alumni in the fields you care about so that you can learn and be mentored by them. This is the next step in the training by proximity that started just by caddying and being around the golf club members. It’s not just “okay, we did our part by helping you pay for college.” JWP takes the next step of helping the scholars network with Platt alumni and contributors to find internships while in college and jobs when they graduate. It’s the next step in professional growth that springboards careers. I’m grateful to Stonewall's members and management team and to those who have contributed to the J Wood Platt Caddie Scholarhip Trust over the years. I’m deeply appreciative of the staff at JWP that orchestrated the trust and got caddies like me lined up on their ‘schooling.’ More than that, the on-going investment in their professional development is what really makes JWP so impactful. The formal schooling plus informal education by proximity was huge for me and has impacted hundreds (maybe thousands) of people like me in the southeastern PA and Jersey areas. My professional path as a JWP alum was a bit different. Sept 11, 2001 reoriented my trajectory. I joined the Marine Corps for 12 years in the F/A-18 tactical aviation world, largely influenced by 9/11. But even with that detour, the leg-up I got from JWP helped immensely as I launched back into the private sector a decade-plus after graduating. It’s an honor, now, 20+ years later, to be able to contribute back financially to that same effort and offer up my little slice of the professional world to younger caddies.