Gene Upshaw Memorial Funds Gives Out $10,000
July 13, 2024
Originally published on Tahoe Daily Tribune by Laney Griffo
Lake Tahoe Community College graduate receives $10,000 scholarship from Gene Upshaw fund.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A Lake Tahoe Community College graduate will have the opportunity
to continue her education thanks to a $10,000 scholarship from the Gene Upshaw Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Each year, starting in 2009, at the American Century Championship, Gary Quinn, NBC
Vice President of Programming & General Manager and Terry Upshaw, Gene's widow, present
a scholarship to a deserving student.
This year's student, Kettja Bennett talked about her troubled upbringing, how her
past inspired her to provide a more stable home to her future children than she had
growing up and how this scholarship will help achieve that goal.
During a press conference at the tournament, Quinn talked about the legacy Upshaw
left behind and the impact he had on Quinn personally.
"It's very important to us to continue to embrace the legacy of the people who have
meant so much to us and be a part and fabric of this community,” said Quinn. "This
community has embraced us and we want to embrace it back.”
"Gene would give his time to anybody and everybody because that's just who Gene was,”
said Terry following Quinn' s comments.
Gene Upshaw Memorial Scholarship Fund recipients should embody the traits Gene valued,
including leadership, giving and someone who pays it forward.
Bennett not only embodies those traits but overcame hardships and still came out on
the other end being thoughtful and hardworking.
According to Bennett, she never met, or even knew who her father was. Her mother suffered
from mental health and addiction issues, leading to Bennett being put into foster
care at the age of 6, along with her younger sister.
Bennett and her sister lived in several foster homes before they were finally adopted
about six years later.
"One thing that sits in the back of my head is, I don't want to end up how my birth
mom was and make my kids go through what I did,” said Bennett. "There's a couple things
I want to do before I have kids and that is having my own home… just a stable home.
The other thing is a good paying job, I want to be financially stable and the reason
college is so important to me and this scholarship is that it will let me get to that
point in life.”