First Tee doesn’t just teach golf. It teaches kids how to be better people.

You’ll typically find 16-year-old Dylan Campion at Walnut Lane Golf Club, fine-tuning his short game and his social skills. Almost every day, Campion travels about 10 minutes from his home in Bala Cynwyd, arriving at the course’s newly renovated Michael J. Brown Learning Center.

From there, Campion grabs his clubs and walks directly to either the putting green or the driving range to begin his practice. This has been Campion‘s routine for almost two years since joining First Tee, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving children’s life skills through the game of golf.

Before joining, the Harriton High School student never touched a golf club. In fact, the first time he picked one up he recalled “swinging it like a hockey stick.” Since then, Campion has improved on and off the course.

“There’s challenges to the game,” Campion said. “Just trying to meet other people [was a challenge] because I wasn’t really an outgoing person. Like, I’m kind of inside more, I’m not usually a talker, if you know what I mean. But since I made some friends out here, it’s been really nice.”

When Campion started to get interested in the sport, his mother, Crystal, 41, immediately wanted to get him involved. She learned about the First Tee program through a work colleague.

“Throughout our time here, I’ve learned that there’s so much more to First Tee than just playing golf,” she said. “The life skills are huge. Just since he started, he’s built so much confidence and quality friendships. It’s an extension of the lessons that I teach him as a parent. They teach respect, they teach honesty, and integrity. It’s just nice to have a program that instills the same things that you would want to do as a parent.”

That’s something First Tee is proud of: the role it plays in shaping youngsters off the course.

“The main goal is to really drive home life skills for kids using the game of golf as a vehicle,” said Jake Norton, the vice president of programs for First Tee. “We’re used to developing an organization obviously centered around golf. But golf is never our main focus. We always want to transform kids’ lives via teaching them different life skills that they can take on and off the golf course.”

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Those skills have also been instilled in 18-year-old Devin Carpenter, who was first introduced to golf at 6 years old when he participated in an introductory golf clinic in Minnesota.

Before joining the Greater Philadelphia chapter of First Tee, which also works with groups such as the Police Athletic League and We Golf Now, in 2017, Carpenter spent time with the Minnesota chapter. Now, as a veteran of the organization, Carpenter tries his best to volunteer and impart some wisdom on the younger generation.

“Over the summer, I’ll come a couple times,” Carpenter said. “It can be like teaching some kind of putting, teaching them how to chip, or going out on the range and doing a few false swings. It’s a good way to kind of help with the next generation of First Tee kids and I really enjoy it.”

Since joining First Tee, Carpenter has developed into a mentor for younger students. But it hasn’t always been this way. In fact, the Haverford School student had his own struggles with public speaking. At one of First Tee’s celebrity invitationals, Carpenter recalled a moment when former Eagles linebacker Seth Joyner helped him at a speaking event.

“I’ve definitely worked to overcome that,” Carpenter said. “I remember it was maybe six, seven years ago, I went out to speak. They actually gave me several questions beforehand that I would have responses to so I wouldn’t forget stuff. And I remember they asked me one question that was not on the list and I just kind of froze.

“Then it was Seth Joyner, he gave me something to talk about. I kind of forget the exact details of it, honestly. It’s been a bit, but he helped out with that.”

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Now, Carpenter plans to take those life lessons with him into his freshman year of college at MIT, where he plans to continue playing golf on the club level. Until then, he will continue to spend time with the First Tee community.

“My favorite thing about First Tee is all the people I’ve met,” Carpenter said. “Peers, friends, mentors, and the coaches of the chapter. I think the First Tee community — there’s not really many other communities like it. The amount of support and the amount of connection I’ve had through that community has been incredible.”

Carpenter and Campion have been involved in several programs within the First Tee organization, including its Caddy Academy, which teaches young golfers everything they need to know about caddying and helps them land a summer job.

Other First Tee programs include PGA junior league teams and a greenskeeper pathway program. The organization also offers academic scholarships to students. And students get access to everything for just $20 per year.

“We’re here to reduce the barriers and entry to the game of golf,” Norton said. “Traditionally, it’s a very expensive sport. So, we don’t require people to pay for classes. We don’t require them to have equipment. We don’t require them to have golf clothes or anything of that nature. We will provide all of that for them.”