| Joshua Slocum with Row New York |
Joshua Slocum credits rowing with more than athletic achievement. He took up the sport his freshman year at Princeton University and continued throughout his four years there. He calls it a defining part of his college experience.
“The level of discipline, commitment and perseverance sets you up well for all sorts of other times in life where that level of perseverance is required,” Slocum says. “I certainly attribute what I’ve been able to achieve in life to rowing.”
Slocum, 39, a managing director of $2.3 billion Chieftain Capital Management, wants more New Yorkers out on the water, so he’s become a board member of Row New York. The organization began as a girls’ rowing program in Queens in 2002 and followed up with a boys’ program in 2012. Row New York now has 30 boats and operates out of two boathouses — the World’s Fair Boathouse in Queens and the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse in northern Manhattan — and will soon add a third in Brooklyn. The group also runs adult rowing programs and added a paraplegic and adaptive rowing program in 2008, the only one of its kind at the time, says Slocum.
One of Slocum’s Princeton friends was a founding board member and encouraged Slocum to get involved. Slocum was an early donor before he was offered a board seat in 2013 and jumped at the chance.
“Row New York is an opportunity for me to help bring rowing to disadvantaged communities, knowing the benefits rowing had on my own life and seeing firsthand the benefits rowing has brought to a lot of these kids.”
Row draws from 70 public schools in four boroughs. Middle school and high school students who are interested in joining a Row team are vetted each autumn for fitness and commitment. Middle school students train two days a week during the academic year, plus a six-week intensive summer program; high schoolers train five to six days year-round. It’s a popular program, says Slocum, with demand outpacing places. The program is free for the target population of 80 percent of students from underserved environments; the remaining 20 percent pay a fee. An added benefit for Row students is the opportunity to team with students they might not otherwise have met.
“I think the interaction is helpful for both sides,” says Slocum.
But becoming one of the 220 students in the year-round program isn’t just about getting on the water. The program is competitive for more than just races, although Row teams have won medals for the past seven New York State championships. There’s also mandatory academic tutoring, SAT preparation and college preparation. Academic results are tracked, and the students’ hard work and focus is paying off: Almost all go to college and graduate. They’re recruited by college rowing coaches, and many continue rowing in college. “Their statistics are off the chart relative to their peers,” says Slocum.
There’s also the discipline and confidence Row students get from being an integral part of a team. Slocum recalls kids who were overweight, didn’t do athletics and lacked confidence who changed dramatically once they started rowing.
The organization’s annual budget is $2 million, most of it from private donors, some government funding and a portion from fees charged for private rowing programs. “We appeal to a lot of different foundation mandates,” says Slocum. “Athletic, academic, obesity and child health.”
Row New York founder Amanda Kraus was the captain of the women’s crew team at her own alma mater, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. As part of the finance and strategic planning committees, Slocum has helped the organization with the realities of fundraising, budgeting and planning. Kraus says Slocum was integral in Row’s winning a prestigious Nonprofit Excellence Award, which comes with a $30,000 cash grant.
“He just went above and beyond to help us have a great review and represent the organization really well,” she says. “He did a ton of prep and spoke so well on Row’s behalf we ended up being one of the winners, and he was a big part of that.”
With intensive training sessions year-round lasting from one to two hours, and all for a five- to eight-minute race, Slocum says the lessons learned from rowing reach far beyond the water. “People realize what they thought were their limits really aren’t their limits and they can push beyond them,” he says. “What they achieve in that athletic setting often translates to academics and the rest of their lives.”
