This conversation explores how funding, partnerships, tutoring, and sport can work together to expand opportunity for kids in underserved Brooklyn neighborhoods.
We discuss Nzinga's upbringing in a Caribbean household, the influence of her mother, and how fencing shaped her discipline, academic path, and leadership.
Petal also asks how parents can help children build confidence, find their gifts, and stay grounded in a distracting world.
Nzinga Prescott: Building PISTE Through Fencing, Discipline, and Community Access
Nzinga Prescott shares how she turned elite fencing success into a community-based youth development model through PISTE, the Prescott Institute for Sport, Teamwork and Education.
Nzingha Prescod
USA Fencing
Olympics results
Prescod Institute for Sport, Teamwork and Education (PISTE)
US Antidoping Agency
Key topics
- In this episode, Nzinga explains how PISTE is funded through a mix of corporate sponsors, foundation grants, government grants, individual donors, school program budgets, membership fees, and events.
- She describes how early support from Bally's, Ernst & Young, the Olympic and Paralympic Committee network, and a storefront partnership helped PISTE grow.
- Nzinga outlines how the organization now reaches about 600 kids each year across schools, the academy, summer programming, and citywide events.
- We discuss how her mother shaped her through black excellence, discipline, tutoring, and intentional exposure to successful Black role models.
- Nzinga shares how fencing developed her focus, mental stamina, time management, and ability to perform under pressure.
- She explains why the sport's culture pushed her toward academic excellence, including the expectation of high achievement and access to specialized schools.
- Nzinga describes how Peter Westbrook's foundation modeled a family-like, high-expectation environment that directly influenced the design of PISTE.
- We discuss the structure of PISTE's fencing academy, including its focus on youth from targeted Brooklyn neighborhoods, long-term commitment, attentiveness, and technical foundation.
- She explains the summer Fencing in the Park program as a pipeline into the academy, especially for children who start young.
- Nzinga details the tutoring and enrichment model, including Stuyvesant student tutors, specialized high school mentorship, chess, architecture, financial literacy, urban farming, workforce development, and school exposure workshops.
- She talks about school partnerships across New York City and how short-term introductory fencing programs help children try something new, build confidence, and stay active.
- Nzinga also shares how brand partnerships and community clinics help make fencing more visible and accessible in neighborhoods where the sport is not widely known.
- Her advice to young athletes is to trust themselves, stay introspective, and avoid being distracted by what others are doing.
- Her advice to parents is to expose children to many experiences, follow their interests without bias, and create opportunities for representation and excellence.
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Timestamps
(0:00) Breakpoint and production reset
(0:16) How PISTE stays affordable through sponsorships and community support
(1:31) Ernst & Young, Bally's, and other early funding relationships
(2:31) Building an organization with accounting, HR, and project management help
(3:22) Team effort, parent support, and community buy-in
(4:09) Why fencing becomes a social and developmental space for kids
(4:59) Six revenue streams and the reality of nonprofit funding
(6:07) Annual reach across schools, the academy, and citywide events
(7:11) What parents need to know about raising kids in a complex world
(8:19) Nzinga's advice to young athletes: trust yourself
(9:26) Introspection, gut instinct, and learning to listen to your body
(10:13) Why balance matters beyond sport
(11:59) Parenting approach: expose children to what they show interest in
(12:54) Representation matters, even for very young children
(13:36) Loving the sport and the process, not just winning
(15:03) Single motherhood, capacity, and what she learned from her own mom
(16:31) How listeners can engage with PISTE
(21:33) Peter Westbrook's foundation as a family and a model of excellence
(23:10) Why PISTE was built to bridge the access gap in Brooklyn
(26:02) Combining elite training with scholarship support and academic access
(27:16) PISTE's mission and its five year round programs
(28:08) Who gets into the fencing academy and what commitment looks like
(34:26) Fencing in the Park as the main pipeline into the academy
(37:16) Tutoring, Stuyvesant student mentors, and specialized high school exposure
(38:54) Saturday enrichment, chess, architecture, financial literacy, and workforce development
(40:58) School partnerships and fencing classes across New York City
(44:05) Brand partnerships, street fairs, and fencing clinics
