{"id":11891,"date":"2025-10-01T08:58:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T12:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=11891"},"modified":"2025-10-10T10:29:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T14:29:29","slug":"driving-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2025\/10\/01\/driving-for-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving for Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John Parker Teaches Character Through Golf as CEO of First Tee Savannah<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"John<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To say John Parker (\u201906, \u201908) has a big heart is an understatement. At seven feet tall \u2014 \u201csix-foot-eleven-and-a-half,\u201d he says in correction \u2014 he literally has a big heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his heart for kids is even bigger. A Double Eagle graduate of Georgia Southern University, Parker earned bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in elementary education and spent 17 years teaching third grade in Bryan County schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After almost two decades in the classroom, Parker left teaching to become the CEO of First Tee \u2014 Savannah, a nonprofit organization teaching character education to kids through the sport of golf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI looked at it from the big picture,\u201d he said. \u201cI can impact a class full of students or I can have an impact on more than 17,000 kids, which is where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parker didn\u2019t naturally gravitate toward golf. He was a basketball standout in high school. After years of playing, however, the physicality of the sport took its toll, and as he got older, he looked for other sports to fill the gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI happened to move into a golf course community in Savannah and was like, \u2018I\u2019m living next to a golf course. I might as well try it,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cSo I went out there and started playing and learned there are all these values associated with the game of golf, and it directly correlated with everything we teach the kids about character in school, like honesty, integrity, perseverance and respect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018I\u2019m going to bring it to my classroom.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parker built a raised putting green in the center of his class and taught kids about character as they learned to gently sink a putt. The class transformed into an after-school program, and before long, it was commanding all of his time and attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI tend to push things to the next level,\u201d he said, smiling. First Tee \u2014 Savannah found out about the work Parker was doing in his class, and invited him to become a part-time program director in 2021. He was appointed CEO in January 2024 and now runs all program and financial efforts of the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 1997, First Tee has more than 150 chapters in the U.S. and abroad that bring junior golf programs to underserved communities. Like Parker, the organization is guided by the belief that sports can fill the \u201ccharacter gap\u201d by teaching nine core values: honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kids come to First Tee \u2014 Savannah from as far away as Long and Jasper counties, and Parker has already expanded programs to South Bryan County, Liberty County and Bulloch County, which will begin this summer at the Georgia Southern Golf Course at University Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst Tee as a whole sets [kids]
up with mentors for life.\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 John Parker, CEO of First Tee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization operates out of the many local golf courses throughout Chatham and surrounding counties. It also relies on mentors and volunteers to keep a six-to-one ratio of kids to adults, and sponsors to give kids equipment, clothes and shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe program is designed to set these kids up with a mentor, so our kids that graduate still stay in contact,\u201d he said. \u201cFirst Tee as a whole sets them up with mentors for life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Tee alumni have become teachers, professionals, and even an aerospace engineer for NASA. Serving thousands of kids on a daily basis is a tough job, but Parker says it doesn\u2019t feel like work. He\u2019s seen firsthand the life-changing effect sports \u2014 and the lack of sports \u2014 can have on a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Before coming to Georgia], I grew up in a rougher area of Pittsburgh,\u201d Parker said. \u201cGolf was never something that was available for me. Sports in general weren’t available for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI look at First Tee from the perspective of \u2014 anything I can do to give kids an opportunity that I didn’t have, that’s what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u2014Doy Cave<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Parker Teaches Character Through Golf as CEO of First Tee Savannah To say John Parker (\u201906, \u201908) has a big heart is an understatement. At seven feet tall \u2014 \u201csix-foot-eleven-and-a-half,\u201d he says in correction \u2014 he literally has a big heart. But his heart for kids is even bigger. A Double Eagle graduate of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":898,"featured_media":11892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-11891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-spring-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/898"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}