Giving back: Judson soccer player creates opportunities for others

Mariano Cutuli has big plans. He came to the United States in 2007 from Buenos Aires, Argentina with little to no English skills. His parents didn’t want him to come to this country so he had to leave without their blessing — or financial support.

“At home, everything was easy,” Cutuli said. “I wanted to get out of my comfort zone.”

First he went to Kankakee Community College, near where his older brother was getting a master’s degree. He learned English, worked hard, hated it sometimes, but persevered.

Now Cutuli, 24, is in the first year of a master’s program at Judson University, researching Ph.D. programs for his next step. He hopes to graduate next year with a double degree in organizational leadership and business administration.

His soccer prowess allowed him to transfer from Kankakee Community College to Judson to finish his undergraduate work and continue with graduate school on a full scholarship. This year Cutuli is the captain of Judson’s team.

The opportunity has made it especially clear to him how important it is that schools in the United States offer such scholarships to foreign athletes.

This year is Cutuli’s fourth playing college soccer so he won’t be able to play next year, but he has agreed to be an assistant coach on the team and plans to help find talent in other South American and European countries. He looks at it as a way to give back.

Giving back is a central theme for Cutuli in more than just soccer. That’s how he frames his entrepreneurial flair, too.

A new online business, My Stuff Your Stuff, will allow people to create an account, offer something they don’t want and trade it for something they do. Cutuli plans to offer internships to fellow Judson students and help mentor them in creating and running businesses.

He’s also doing his own learning at 4M World Technologies as a marketing employee in a work training program at the Elgin small business.

Cutuli’s goal in his career is simple: to create jobs. When he first came to the United States, he bought a house near Kankakee Community College, fixed it up and sold it for a profit. But since then his values and ethics have changed.

“It was a great experience but I realized I was making money without giving anything back,” Cutuli said.

Offering internships to Judson students is a way Cutuli sees himself giving back to the community. One day it will be offering jobs.

But where, exactly, is anyone’s guess.

Cutuli is interested in Ph.D. programs in Florida — he is looking at bigger schools and warmer weather. One day he might go back to Argentina to live but if he ends up working elsewhere, he hopes to have the financial stability to fly home regularly.

He is one of nine children in a very close family where all of his brothers have come to the United States at some point. He has plenty of nephews and nieces already and thinks about the time spent away from Buenos Aires in terms of the number of their birthdays he has missed.

“That’s the biggest price I’m paying,” Cutuli said.

But ever since he was 14, Cutuli knew he wanted to leave. He saw his brothers’ academic progress in the United States and wanted to try it. He went to one of the best economics schools in Buenos Aires for six months — proof to his parents that he would try it — but he thought it was too easy.

The life he has made for himself in this country is far from easy.

He wakes up at 6:30 a.m. and hardly stops until 2 a.m. when he goes to sleep again. He is fluent in English and learning Portuguese. He has been on several mission trips with other Judson students. He spends time finding investors and working to grow his companies — the second of which is a consulting firm he hopes to launch soon. He is researching and applying for Ph.D. programs while completing the course work for his master’s, working 20 hours per week at 4M, and leading the soccer team in daily practices and regular games.

He said he has a problem where he can’t say no.

“But I’m happy,” Cutuli said. “I need to do things. In the States, you can’t be lazy.”