Jerry West attends as Keynote Speaker
SCGA Foundation scholars and donors gathered Thursday evening for the First Annual Scholarship Dinner, a night dedicated to honoring the hard work of the scholars and allowing them to meet some of the Foundation’s donors. Lakers legend and longtime Foundation supporter Jerry West (pictured) was the keynote speaker for the event, which was hosted at the California Club in Los Angeles by members Rich Wolf and Phil Frengs.
Thirteen of the 19 scholars and their families arrived at the historic California Club for a reception followed by dinner and speakers. In addition to a 20-minute keynote address from West, who shared perspective from his own life on what got him to where he is today, two scholars spoke to the group of nearly 100 people.
Thao Le, who recently graduated from UCLA, spoke to the scholars about how rewarding, but challenging, college can be. Perseverance, she said, is key, and the payoff you get in the end is well worth the hard work.
“The SCGA foundation really tries to help us become well-rounded individuals on and off the course, in hopes that we will spread what we learned and experienced to younger generation,” she said. “I am proud to say that I am the first in my family to graduate from college and it could not have been done without the help of this generous foundation.”
Titus Yu, a freshman at Cypress College, also spoke about his goals of earning a degree in Business Administration and mentioned this was his first public speaking opportunity.
Grisell Medina and Wally Gonzalez, this year’s Livingston Foundation Scholars, were junior emcees and introduced the scholars, who were each recognized onstage. The Livingston Family Foundation recently made a commitment of $50,000 over five years to the SCGA Foundation. Ron Livingston, 79, and members of his family attended the event. Mr. Livingston encouragedother donors to consider becoming involved as a named scholarship donor. The Livingston Family Foundation was recently featured in FORE Magazine. Read more here.
Although the dinner was not intended to be a fundraiser, nearly $3,000 was raised for the scholarship program after expenses.
Meet all of this year’s scholars here.