When general manager Ryan Poles first joined the Bears in January 2022, the goals for his tenure stretched beyond the obvious priority of building a championship-caliber team. He also wanted to connect with the community he now calls home and provide new levels of access to the organization, specifically its football operations departments.
"Poles had brought me into his office in 2022, and he was like, 'Ash, I have a vision. This is what I would love for us to all do here, especially from the scouting side, give back to the community of Chicago,' player personnel coordinator Ashton Washington said.
"That vision was Scout School."
"So me and [executive assistant to the GM] Colleen [Collins Josellis], we just hit the ground running, like, 'let's do this. Who in the building can help us?' And we have so many people in the building that can help us, which made it easier for us to start off. And then every single year, we just continue to get better."
Poles hosted the first Scout School — a program designed to teach local youth about the roles of college and professional scouts in an NFL organization — on Dec. 15, 2023, less than one year after his arrival in Chicago.
Last Friday, during the first public training camp practice at Halas Hall, Poles and the Bears held the fifth iteration of Scout School and hosted 18 students from Chicago Scholars — a program for first-generation college students who live and attend high school in Chicago. This year's group marked the first time Scout School was presented to college-aged students.
"I'm super proud we've been able to impact different types of groups," Poles said, "whether that's women's flag football, young kids or kids that are graduating from high school or college. I think it shows our opportunity to impact people outside of our building and again, to inspire them, to help them along their journey and create some hope, inspiration and clarity in terms of what they want to do."
The group's day started in the Bears' draft room with a welcome message from Poles, who had every student introduce themselves and the career path they hope to take or what they plan to study in college. The answers ranged from journalism to law to biology to psychology to accounting, among many others.
The wide variety of interests among the group was indicative of why Scout School's programming has evolved over the years. In the first couple of iterations, the students only heard from football operations staff members, but Scout School has now expanded throughout the organization. This year, the students took part in a panel/Q&A session hosted by Bears radio play-by-play broadcaster Jeff Joniak and included content producer Will Bridgforth, video coordinator Parker Dilley, fan development & brand marketing coordinator Kelsey Meisenzahl, social media coordinator Chidera Udeh, Midwest area scout Ryan Weese, football administration & analytics manager Andrea Wright and Washington.
Reggie Burke, a lifelong Bears fan and rising USC freshman from Chicago's South Side, plans to pursue a biology degree, yet left Halas Hall Friday with a growing interest in a career in sports. He was specifically intrigued by scouting and football analytics, both of which pour into his passion for research and analyzing new things. He felt inspired by the panelists' varying paths to the Bears.
"The biggest takeaway was when speaking with everybody about their career paths, they were all saying, 'never back down from an opportunity, always be outgoing and outspoken,'" Burke shared. "Just being courageous in whatever you want to do. So, that's something I'll take with me for a very long time — never be scared to go for something."
The students spent the majority of their day at Halas Hall with the scouting department. They were first paired with a scout to watch practice and learn how they evaluate players on the field before reviewing practice film in the draft room.
For Houefa Agassouno — a rising freshman at Columbia University who plans to study interior architecture — scouting was something she had no prior knowledge of. But with the help of national scout Brendan Rehor, it became a newfound interest.
"I came in with an open mind, because I am a fan of the Bears, but I was not expecting everything that I did learn today," Agassouno said. "My scout knew so much, and you can tell he was passionate and that he does this because he loves it. It just showed me that the games we see on Sundays — there's so much more that goes into it. It's not just the players. There's a bunch of moving parts.
"I thought it was cool how he goes out to all these different places to get the specific players with a specific profile that they're looking for. I just thought it was amazing. I didn't know all the terms he was speaking about, but after a while, I started picking them up. It was so fun."
The insights from both Burke and Agassounu encapsulate Scout School's value and prove why providing new groups of students the opportunity to experience the energy inside Halas Hall and take inspiration from the staff is worth pouring into.
Poles' ultimate dream is to one day work in the same building as a student who attended Scout School. While that vision may take some time to come to fruition, it's far from impossible.
"Right now, I'm at this point in my life where I'm still trying to figure out where I want to be," Burke shared. "This has opened my options and my mind to so many different things. So, I think the Bears giving us an opportunity for something like this is obviously a big deal, and I appreciate it a lot."
