Beat the Streets Philadelphia Podcast BTS Philly

In this podcast episode, we get to speak with Kaya Sement, a Lead Mentor at BTS Philly. Kaya is a sophomore on the University of Pennsylvania wrestling team and brings tons of experience into the BTS room.Kaya first became involved in Beat the Streets as the Lifting Coach for the student-athletes. He soon realized that being a coach meant more than just teaching the student-athletes technique."One day, one of the kids came up to me and said, 'Can I ask you some advice?' And I was like, 'Yeah,...

In this episode of the podcast we are blessed to speak with Olympic and World Champion, Jordan Burroughs. Since moving to Philadelphia, Jordan has been instrumental in helping out around the BTS mentoring center and has been an excellent role model for our BTS youth. He brings years of experience at the highest levels of wrestling and inspires so many in our community. Jordan shares his motivations and impact with us on the show today, along with some amazing advice to wrestling parents. We a...

In this episode of the podcast, we have the chance to speak with Lender Vega, who works full-time at BTS Philly as the Wrestling Coordinator. Lender has a rich history with the Beat the Streets program.While we often talk about the intersection of academics and athletics, Lender’s story has an unusual twist. During a freshman year seminar, his teacher offered the students five extra points if they participated in a sport. Lender jumped at the opportunity and joined the wrestling team. Despite...

In this episode of the podcast, we get the chance to speak with Evan Barczak, a Drexel University wrestler who has been an instrumental member of the Beat the Streets Philadelphia community for the past four years. According to Executive Director James Mangan, “His role as a lead mentor really helped shape a lot of this programming over the last couple of years.”As a freshman at Drexel, Evan heard about the program from an older teammate and showed up to a pizza party event. He was immediatel...

In this episode, we speak with UPenn wrestler CJ Composto who achieved All-American status this March at the NCAA tournament. CJ is a regular at the mentoring center and speaks about how serving others lifts yourself up. It's impressive that he is able to balance Division 1 athletics and Ivy League Academics, while still finding time to help the student-athletes at Beat the Streets!

In this episode of the podcast we get the chance to speak with Regina Johnson who is not only a BTS parent, but she serves as the Athletic Director at Matin Luther King High School which is a BTS partner. Regina brings a fresh new perspective to the podcast and so many lessons from the BTS community. She has been an invaluable partner and we are so grateful for everything she does to serve the student-athletes of Philadelphia!