Transcript
What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. Cory Simon, CEO of Volunteer Florida. It's always been a passion of mine to serve. It was always given back to me, coaches, teachers, and always imparted on me the importance of community. And if you're gonna be in a community, be a part of that community. I've always gravitated to young people. I tell folks, if you wanna know a young person, thanks just sit back and listen. Because if you give them the time to talk, they'll tell you exactly what they're thinking. And so if you're listening to young people, they're telling you exactly what it is they're going through. And if you're not being so critical and you're listening with an open mind, you'll realize it's not much different than the things that you went through. And that's what keeps me dialed in to the work that I do, not only with what we do at Volunteer Florida, but also what I do with Pop Warner. Folks, ask me all the time, Cory, your son's been out of Pop Warner since 2012. Why are you still doing this? It's because I'm passionate about the future and what that looks like. Getting an opportunity to play professional football is it was a dream for me. Once I got to high school and some of the coaches would talk about it and says, you know, you can play this at a high level, you can go on and play in college. The pros was never a discussion that I have with my coaches. It was always getting an opportunity to go to college, further my education and then taking it from there. Football and the reason why I still do this with young people is because of what it gave me, the discipline, understanding teamwork, understanding disappointment and loss and how to deal with that. I'm thankful for the coaches that I've had. Coach Bowden is probably the one person for me who taught me how to look at the sport that you participate in and how that really blends with the life lessons that you learn. Corey Simon, CEO of Volunteer Florida. You're listening to voices that inspire.