Magic Johnson Foundation Honors 33 Students

The following press release is from the Magic Johnson Foundation:

Earvin "Magic" Johnson along with sponsor FedEx honored 33 scholars who earned the Magic Johnson Foundation's Taylor Michaels Scholarship Saturday, July 28 at a special brunch at . The morning event capped the Foundation's annual five-day Taylor Michaels Scholarship Program (TMSP) Conference, which offered new and past scholars life skills leadership training and career development workshops.

The Magic Johnson Foundation is an active participant in solving the problem of abysmal college completion rates in low-income communities. They develop future leaders by supporting socioeconomically challenged high achievers through completion of their undergraduate degrees. By providing support and resources to help young women and men from underserved communities achieve both inside and outside the classroom, they have achieved a phenomenal success rate of college access and graduation.

Specifically, their scholars attain Bachelor’s degrees at a rate of more than 80 percent, versus the national graduation rates for underserved/underrepresented minorities which hovers near 45 percent.

In 2012, the Magic Johnson Foundation will fund 141 undergraduate scholars with a $500,000 financial commitment. Additional support includes laptops for all freshman, alongside access to four years of mentoring, internships, and leadership training and career development each July at our annual summer convening.

Founded in 1998, the Taylor Michaels Scholarship Program is aptly named after Taylor Michaels, the inspiring Chief Operating Officer for Magic Johnson Enterprises who passed away that year. The program develops future leaders by supporting socioeconomically challenged high achievers through completion of their undergraduate degrees and offers support including laptops, mentorships and internships. TMSP Alumni have gone on to graduate from top Universities including USC, UCLA, Brown, Howard and Morehouse, amoung others.

Here are profiles of the Los Angeles scholars:

• Geovanny Estrada, UCLA '12 - Dreams do come true! “I'll be starting late August/early September [as a nurse] on the Acute Care Pediatric Floor at UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital inside the Ronald Reagan Medical Center. I'm really excited!
• Zoe Tucker, Central State Univ. ‘15 - Selected as a recipient of the Upperclassmen Scholarship for the 2012-2013 academic year. The Upperclassmen Scholarship is awarded to continuing students who have achieved a 3.0 or above cumulative GPA and completed 30 credit hours during the 2011-2012 Academic Year. Zoe will receive a scholarship in the amount of $6000 for 2012-2013 academic year. 

• Marti Reed UCLA ‘12 - Selected as the graduation speaker for the first ever UCLA Athletics Graduation. Marti was also selected as a BruinLife Senior of the Year. Reed is a 2012 Softball Scholar-Athlete Award Winner  and AS2 "Success" Award and Athletic Director's Academic Excellence Award.
• Brittaney Dennis UC Riverside-BA ‘09, USC-MSW ‘12 - Recently received her Master’s degree in Social Work from University of Southern California.

• Brytani Garnett (TMSP 2008) USC  ‘12 - “Over winter break, I travelled to Honduras with USC’s Global Water Brigades, an organization that prides itself on empowering communities to access clean water through education, infrastructural development and training. Our brigade worked with the community leaders to build 400 kilometers of a larger irrigation system throughout the village known as El Canton. Day in and day out, we spent hours using pickaxes and shovels to dig two foot deep trenches for the plumbing and leading lessons at an orphanage on the significance of maintaining clean water. During our reflections, everyone shared the most amazing and yet simple acts of kindness and love that they experienced with the natives. It was at the end of the trip on my way to the airport that I realized that of course I enjoy helping those underserved and underprivileged as most people do however, this was my passion."
•  Kenneth Chancey, Loyola Marymount Univ. ‘15  - Recently awarded an internship w/ California Congresswoman Karen Bass of the 33rd district. Seen here advocating against budget cuts to California’s higher education system.

• Leslie Grigsby Bethune-Cookman Univ. ‘12 - Currently awaiting word on graduate school (Education) applications, Leslie is student teaching at Atlantic High School where she may continue after the internship as a permanent substitute until the end of this school year with a 3.62 GPA. 
• Andrielle Miller UC Merced ‘13 - While studying abroad, Andrielle performed during Ordsprak, an international poetry festival at the Regina Teatern in Uppsala, Sweden this past October. She won the festival's slam and was invited back to perform as opening act for the headliner - world renowned poet Saul Williams. Also here is a video of a performance she did in Madrid during a Latin American hip hop festival in November.