![\"Mohamed](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/mohamed-elmaola-clark-university-300x183-2.jpg\")
Several hands shot into the air, with students calling out into the auditorium: “Be nice to siblings.” “Don’t give attitude.” “Take out the trash.” The last student’s answer, “Make good choices,” made Elmaola pause.<\/p>\n
“What good choices can we make?” he asked, which led to a conversation on how small investments of time into positive decisions can lead to big results. Before the children — many of whom would be first-generation college students — set out to see the campus<\/a>, Elmaola led them in a cheer. “Make good investments!” rang out before the students dissolved into applause.<\/p>\n He didn’t know it at the time, but Elmaola was giving the children inside the room a glimpse into his future.<\/p>\n Along with some friends two years ago, the Worcester native started the Worcester Soccer House<\/a>, a grassroots organization providing free soccer instruction as well as character-building to children ages 6 to 12, and gained city-wide attention<\/a> for it. He came to Clark as a Presidential LEEP (Liberal Education and Effective Practice) Scholar<\/a> with the intent of turning the group into a nonprofit. Last summer, Elmaola, or Coach Mo as the players referred to him, fresh from a second place finish<\/a> in Clark’s Ureka Big Idea Challenge<\/a> and with a LEEP fellowship<\/a> in hand, set out to do just that.<\/p>\n With partnerships forged, he was poised to spread the program citywide, but ran into differences in philosophies with officials whose goals for the program didn’t match his own. “As the summer was progressing, we found the project was less and less feasible,” he says.<\/p>\n The difference was enough to sideline the program and leave Elmaola, a psychology<\/a> major who’s minoring in innovation and entrepreneurship<\/a>, feeling adrift. “This was the lowest point of my summer,” he says.<\/p>\n However, this is where the next chapter of Elmaola’s LEEP<\/a> journey begins.<\/p>\n “I want to provide an opportunity for kids to hear a voice they don’t hear every day.”<\/p>\n