NBA All-Star Kevin Durant makes surprise appearance at Austin’s IDEA Rundberg as part of BBVA Compass’ Summer of Opportunity

The students were attending a basketball clinic held on the school’s outdoor basketball court, which debuted last year and is a joint endeavor between the BBVA Compass Foundation and the Kevin Durant Charity Foundation's Build It and They Will Ball court renovation program. The clinic was led by instructors from the Kevin Durant Youth Basketball Fantasy ProCamp, the two-day event for Austin-area youth that also started Thursday. Both the clinic and camp are being presented by BBVA Compass.

It’s great to come back to IDEA Rundberg today with BBVA Compass and see how this court is being put to such good use

“It’s great to come back to IDEA Rundberg today with BBVA Compass and see how this court is being put to such good use,” said Durant. “This is a place where the students can live big and bright and build their futures. It’s an honor to be able to give back to Austin in a way that makes a real difference in day-to-day lives.”

Durant’s appearance in Austin Thursday is his first in the city since winning the NBA Finals in June and being named MVP of the series.

BBVA Compass' Summer of Opportunity initiative kicked off in June with employees across the bank's footprint handing out $25 gift cards to the people and organizations of their choice. The bank also summoned its brand ambassadors, including Durant, to help promote the summer-long campaign to spread bright cheer and pay it back to the communities it calls home.

“This event today puts an exclamation point on our commitment to Austin,” said Yolanda Davila, BBVA Compass’ Community Relations Executive for Texas and also an IDEA board member. “We are out there every day helping families get into affordable homes, helping families build their futures, and it’s nice to have such a phenomenal role model as Kevin come together with us during our Summer of Opportunity to help bring attention to those efforts and create such an amazing opportunity for the IDEA students.”

This event today puts an exclamation point on our commitment to Austin

The BBVA Compass Foundation, which dedicated $100,000 to the court at IDEA Rundberg, helps carry out the bank’s mission to be an engine of opportunity by broadening access to education and affordable housing, among other aims. The court is a vivid illustration of both the bank’s dedication to Austin and the power of private industry to step in where other funding sources fall short. As a charter school, IDEA Rundberg receives approximately 75 percent of its funding from state and federal sources, compared to traditional public schools, and relies on private donations to pay for its facilities.

IDEA’s Austin Rundberg campus serves more than 700 students in its Academy and College Prep schools, and is part of the growing IDEA Public Schools network of charter schools serving more than 36,000 students across Texas. For the past 11 years, 100 percent of IDEA graduates have been accepted to college, including Ivy League schools and other highly competitive universities.

“Our aim is to give the promising young people who walk through our doors whatever they need to build big futures, and we are marshaling all of the resources we can to help us achieve that,” said IDEA Rundberg College Prep Principal Taylor Nichols. “We’re proud to be able to stand with such committed partners in BBVA Compass and Kevin Durant in the service of that goal.”