During her summer internship with the Detroit Police Athletic League, commonly known as Detroit PAL, Savannah Chapie ’27 stepped onto soccer fields with middle school players and into a role outside her comfort zone.
A standout on the Kalamazoo College volleyball team, Chapie knew how to coach the sport she had played for years. Soccer was different. Rather than trying to lead as an expert, she encouraged players, participated in activities and became a dependable adult presence.
That willingness to try an unfamiliar role became central to Chapie’s work with Detroit PAL, a nonprofit organization that uses athletics and other programming to serve young people in the Detroit area.
A business major and psychology minor from Lake Orion, Michigan, Chapie entered the internship knowing she enjoyed athletics, working with children and giving back to her community. She was also interested in business and marketing, but she had not decided how those interests might come together in a career.
Detroit PAL allowed her to explore those connections through youth sports, coaching, event planning and nonprofit operations. The experience will also inform a reflection paper for her Senior Integrated Project, giving her another opportunity to consider what she learned and how it might shape her next steps.
“I think it’s ultra important that I try out different jobs and career paths as much as I can,” Chapie said.
From Volleyball to Soccer and Back
Chapie discovered Detroit PAL while searching for internships. She was initially interested in sports-related opportunities at Rocket Mortgage, but as she explored other possibilities, she found herself drawn to nonprofit work and PAL’s athletics and programming internship.
Her summer days rarely looked the same. She spent mornings at PAL’s office, where she and three other interns worked on individual projects. Each intern developed a presentation proposing an idea that could benefit the organization, giving Chapie a chance to look beyond daily programming and consider PAL from a broader perspective.
Two of the other interns were from Detroit. Chapie appreciated learning from their knowledge of the city and gaining perspectives she missed growing up in Lake Orion.
She also worked at three Detroit-area middle schools, helping with a summer soccer league. Because she knew less about soccer than volleyball, the assignment challenged her to reconsider what she could offer.
Volleyball allowed her to contribute more comfortably. Chapie coached 13- and 17-year-old girls in PAL’s recreational league, drawing on her experience as a college athlete. Coaching helped her see athletics from another perspective: not as the player on the court but as the person responsible for helping create a positive experience for others.
“I was able to learn a lot about what goes into being a coach, especially the thought processes I’d want if I were coaching my own team,” Chapie said.
The internship also extended beyond youth sports. Chapie worked at events including the Rocket Mortgage Classic and participated in corporate events involving PAL sponsors. Balancing those responsibilities became one of her biggest challenges.
“I was able to do so many things,” she said. “I just had to make sure that everything was aligned.”
Showing Up for Young People
Of all her responsibilities, Chapie’s work with young people left the strongest impression. She worked with students from elementary school through high school, including many Spanish-speaking students. Although she speaks only basic Spanish, she enjoyed watching students move comfortably between Spanish and English.
More importantly, she came to understand that her role was not simply to teach a sport.
PAL’s mission helped shape the way she approached her work. The organization aims to make sports accessible and affordable while giving young people opportunities to develop skills and relationships.
“Sports should be an outlet, especially for kids,” Chapie said. “You should always be able to rely on sports and the amount of things that sports can bring you.”
Those benefits can include physical and life skills, she said, along with relationships and a chance to have fun. Sometimes, Chapie learned, the most important thing an adult can do is show up.
“I think it’s really cool how much you’re able to influence a kid,” Chapie said. “I feel like it’s important to give them all the love that you can.”
She remembers children wanting hugs at the end of the day.
“You never know what’s going on at home, but I know that I can personally show up for them,” she said.
The relationships also changed Chapie.
“A lot of people say that the kids benefit from you, but I really benefited from being with the kids,” she said.
Discovering Another Direction
By the end of the summer, Chapie had not settled on one plan for life after K. Instead, she had added possibilities to the list.
The internship reinforced her interest in athletics and working with young people. It also introduced philanthropy as a potential career path, an area she had not previously considered.
“I know a few other businesses have large philanthropy programs that I could look into,” she said. “And if it has to do with athletics, I think that would be something awesome as well.”
The experience broadened her understanding of Detroit, nonprofit work, athletics and the people who make youth programming possible. It also built on her experiences at K, which have helped her identify connections among interests that might initially seem unrelated.
For Chapie, finding the bigger picture does not require choosing one path immediately. It means paying attention to the experiences that energize her and remaining willing to try something new.
“K offers a lot of different classes that have presented me with a variety of paths,” Chapie said. “It’s helped me understand what I enjoy doing and consider some careers that I wouldn’t have necessarily thought of had I gone somewhere else. I’m a huge K advocate.”
