Dave Hoffman ‘00
Vice President for Community Engagement, The Boston Celtics
Beaver Reflections:
I went to Beaver from 9th-12th grade but my family was involved many years before. My older brother went to Beaver and I always looked up to him. I had a great experience at Beaver, especially being apart of the varsity basketball team.
What is #happeningnow in your life:
I work for the Boston Celtics and I’m privileged to be in a position to help with the community outreach work that the team and oversee the team’s charitable foundation, the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation. We run around 30 outreach programs for at-risk or under-resourced youth in New England, fundraise, and donate resources out to nonprofits to help them in a variety of different ways to help them achieve their mission. Interestingly, I received the baton for the department head from another Beaver alum. The guy who hired me- who I went to Beaver with and we played on the basketball team together- was Matt Mayerson
“My dream was to play for the Boston Celtics like many kids… I’ve always been passionate about sports, especially the NBA and The Celtics. I saw the power of sports-based community work from my brother who had cancer. Numerous athletes sent him messages and I saw the impact that these athletes can have on people to give them strength through very difficult times has the incredible power and influence to uplift people. When my brother was in remission- during his Sophomore year at Beaver- he decided to use his free time to volunteer at Children’s Hospital to help kids going through difficult times. To get your time and health back and to choose to go back into where you’ve had very tough times really inspired me.”
Advice to current Beaver students:
“I think young adults are far more focused than I was in high school- there’s a lot of pressure on you guys to figure out what you want to do and how you are going to turn it into a career. I think it’d be better for the pressure to be lifted of young people so they can try new things so they can become more fluid in their experiences over time.”