By the time lunch rolled around Tuesday afternoon during the Mavs Tech Day with Mercy Street Dallas, Jeremiah Ned
acknowledged that he had already digested enough information to last him a lifetime.
“What I got out of everything that I heard was to be humble and stay focused,” said Ned, a 16-year old 11th-grader at Pinkston High School. “I should just talk to new people and be engaged with what you want them to know, because you might get an opportunity to do something later on in life with them.
“Just learn something new every day and be humble.”
Ned was one of approximately 40 youths from Mercy Street Dallas who – through a partnership with the Mavs Gaming CommUNITY – were able to tour the Dallas Mavericks’ headquarters and practice facilities, and become more educated on the technology and analytic side of governor Mark Cuban’s multi-billion dollar organization.
A panel of five Mavs employees described their role with the organization, their path to their career choice, and offered advice to the students on how to pursue a career in their desired industry. In addition, Mavs Gaming employees shared their own journey on how they became a 
professional Esports athlete to those who have the desire to pursue technology and gaming careers.
“Today we were able to collaborate and educate the students of Mercy Street and we were able to learn and grow together through understanding the role of technology not only in the roles it plays in professional sports, but in their general lives,” said Tray Thompson, the manager of corporate social responsibility for the Mavs and moderator of Tuesday’s event. “We were honored to be able to fellowship and learn more about one another.
“But we were also able to create a new level of understanding through technology, through community and through the importance of growing together and seeing the value that one another has to offer for the world.”
Adija Ramazani, a 16-year old 11th-grader at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center, heard from the panel that if she and her peers simply apply themselves accordingly, the world could be their oyster.
“My biggest takeaway is, I would say, put myself out there more,” Ramazani said. “I do that now, but I feel like I don’t do it enough. But I feel like if I were to do that, I would be able to get more connections with people.
“I learned that there are different roles in this job with the Mavs. And through relationships and communications, you can have bigger opportunities if you just know the right people.”
Mercy Street Dallas exists to cultivate mutually transforming relationships with inner-city youths through Christian mentorship. They also will be celebrating their 20-year anniversary on Oct. 26.
Eugene Taber, the director of end user and systems support for the Mavs and one of Tuesday’s five panelists, gave some sage advice to the youths.
“The biggest thing I’ll say is don’t ever pass up the opportunity to get more education, because I learn something every day in this job, and I’m never the smartest person in the room,” Taber said. “Once you kind of figure some stuff out, go full into it, barrel through and try to learn as much as you can because nothing is ever going to be given to you. It’s all going to be hard work.
“Just be humble and know that you may not have the answer right away, and that’s OK. But as long as you’re willing to work to find the answer and solve the problem, you’ll be fine. But just be humble and be nice, because in this world you just got to be nice to people.”
Brad Freeman, the senior director for Mavs Academy and Mavs Gaming and one of the five panelists, took a trip down memory lane and told the youths of the days when he was a teacher and a coach, and spoke succinctly of how first impressions and being respectful to authority figures is so valuable.
“The kids that I knew that treated me with respect and that worked hard in my class, they made me want to help them,” Freeman 
said. “Being my human nature, I don’t want to help somebody who didn’t want my help. Develop that relationship with your teachers, because there’s going to come a time where you’re going to be asked to have somebody write a recommendation for you for a job or a scholarship or something, and that comes from your teacher. They want a teacher recommendation.
“So, you need to think about when you’re going to class, what kind of recommendation would this teacher give me if I ask this teacher to give me a recommendation so I can get this job? What kind of recommendation when I get a job would my boss give me to get that next level job? Those are relationships. Having those solid relationships are going to be how, I think, you will advance educationally. Everything we’ve talked about is important, but none of that works if you don’t have good relationships with people.”
Darius Walker, a 14-year old 10th-grader at Sunset High School, soaked in the knowledge and couldn’t wait to run and tell his family and friends of all the information he learned Tuesday.
“I think this is a good office, and everybody works well together,” Walker said. “It’s like a friendly environment to work in.
“They were saying to build relationships with people, because one day they could potentially be your boss. The other takeaway is knowing what I can and can’t do, and the value of what I can do. And sometimes go out of my comfort zone to find something that I can put into my comfort zone.”
Amillion Williams has already graduated from high school and plans to attend college at Texas Southern University in Houston. She said what she learned from the Mavs contingent will hopefully help her find her comfort zone.
“I love these opportunities in different environments, because I’ve been living in Dallas my whole life and I haven’t ever been here before,” Williams said. “There were five different people up there (on the panel) and you heard everybody’s point of view and how they started their life, how they started their career and how they love doing what they do.
“I’m not sure what I want to be when I grow up, but my granny always told me you better go and be a nurse or find something you’re going to have a career with. I feel like I’ve got to have a career in something I’m going to love doing.”
Ronnie Fauss, the vice-president of business operations for the Mavs and one of the five panelists, told of how technology has been a catalyst in helping speed up the things he has to do on an everyday basis.
“In an average day I probably send between 60-80 emails, and those might be on 20 or 30 different topics,” Fauss said. “Well, that’s enabled by technology as opposed to if I had to go have 80 different conversations about 20 or 30 different things in a day.
“It allows for you to accomplish more in the same amount of time if you use it correctly.”
Fauss also told the students to be active, engaged and involved in something of value in the community, and basically not to be a couch 
potato.
“There’s nothing good about spending your day on the couch scrolling whatever or binging a show for no reason,” Fauss said. “It doesn’t add anything to your life. Just do something.
“It allows you to grow as a person, use your skills sets, and it gives you relationships. Don’t waste your time. You’re young, you have opportunities to learn, and you have opportunities to help people.”
Isaiah Ramsey, a data analyst underneath the business intelligence and analytic departments for the Mavs and one of Tuesday’s panelists, also shared with the students why it’s imperative that they try everything and don’t waste their own time on mundane things.
“For any given topic you can get to the 80 percent level of it with your 20 percent of work,” Ramsey said. “That last 20 percent is where it gets complicated and grueling.
“But if you just spend two hours – the length of watching a movie – on some topic that you think you might have interest in, that’s
automatically going to put you in the top 20 percent of people on that topic.”
Jacob Martinez, the Esports designer for Mavs Gaming and one of the five panelists, told the youths to figure out what they love, and love what they do.
“I love what I do every day,” Martinez said. “To me, I can do it for 90 hours a week or I can do it for 40 hours a week.
“So, no matter what, I’m always doing something that I enjoy, and it doesn’t feel like I’m wasting my time or doing something that I don’t enjoy. So, find what you love and do what you love.”
Hearing that, Freeman drew laughter when he said: “I just learned that (Martinez is) willing to work 90 hours a week, so I’m fired up.”
Thompson also is fired up that he and others with the Mavs were able to share their wealth of knowledge and experience with the students of Mercy Street Dallas.
“My biggest takeaway is the power of how each person’s skills really play a part in building the total picture,” Thompson said. “Being able to see how, on the Dallas Mavericks’ side, we have individuals who work in analytics, individuals who work on the tech side, individuals who work in IT and individuals who work in Esports, and seeing how all of these things still play a part in growing together and building our business together.
“So, learning how we can continue to inspire the next generation of kids through these spills, we hope that it gives them an inspiration to explore these spills and collegiate opportunities. But also in their personal time — especially during the summer time — we want these kids to be able to find new things to exercise and entertain themselves that are more productive, that leads them to thinking about their future in a deeper and more in-depth understanding.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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