The Boss - Margaret Minson - When the Game's on the Line - NYTimes.com I GREW up in Rockaway Beach, Queens. I've always been an athlete. In the 1950s, when I started playing tennis as a preteen, there weren't many women who played, so I'd join my father and his friends at the Belle Harbor Yacht Club. In the 1960s, I played high school basketball and continued playing at St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn. I've played tennis and golf with my four sons and now I play with my grandchildren. Athletes are risk-takers; you have to be able to take that last shot. I'm not afraid to take risks in business. My mother was a teacher, which had a big influence on me. While raising four sons, I taught in summer day camps and after-school programs and obtained a master's degree. During one summer program, I was pregnant. I wore a windbreaker to work and figured that no one would notice. Just as summer was ending, one little boy said, "So when are you having that baby?" We don't always realize how much children observe and how astute they are. In the 1980s, I took a break from education and started a general contracting company. My husband and I moved several times as our family grew, and each house needed to be renovated. I assembled some of the workers and started renovating other people's houses. We remodeled kitchens and built decks. I made sure that things ran smoothly, kept the trades working well together and brought projects in on budget. Those skills have served me well. Around 1990, I attended a college reunion and left with an offer from the academic dean to teach part time. I taught for a year and then became director of alumni relations, followed by vice president of institutional advancement. In that last position, I represented the college and was involved in fund-raising, communications, marketing and advertising, and government and alumni relations. I had been at St. Joe's for 12 years when a headhunter contacted me about the same job at Marymount Manhattan College. Marymount offered yet another change, and I accepted. In 2007, I was offered the job as executive director of Student Sponsor Partners. We give low-income students in New York City who are at risk academically the opportunity to attend private high schools. Many are immigrants, and most come from single-parent households. The schools we partner with are good at nurturing these kids. I believe in the public schools, but not every school is right for every student. On average, 85 percent of our students have graduated from high school and 90 percent of graduates attend college. Last year, our students received $25 million in college scholarships. In the fall, we'll have about 1,400 students in the program. We believe that if you help these kids graduate from high school, they can usually make it through college. There are several programs available for them in higher education, such as work-study programs. We also have financial donors and other volunteers from New York City as mentors, but they act more as academic coaches than as tutors. They meet with students at least four to six times a year and call or e-mail once a month to track their progress. We also have a coordinator in every school who gets a stipend to monitor the students. My husband has mentored a boy for several years, and many of our former students return to help after college. Last May, I got a doctorate in education at Fordham University. I'm competitive by nature and wanted to raise the bar for myself. I also did it as an example for my grandchildren.