SUPPORT FOR JERRY HARVEY

Remember our favorite Jeopardy champion that we met running the stairs at Drake Stadium? That runner who asked how we were doing, how training was going, and when our birthdays were? Yes, that runner was Jerry Harvey. If you are not acquainted with Jerry’s professional accomplishments, here is some background: After several years of work in traditional educational settings (including Director of Admissions at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and Director of the Counseling Center at the University of California at Irvine), Jerry became an independent educational consultant.

For the past fifty years, Jerry has expanded opportunities for hundreds of students from high schools with limited resources. Although his initial goal was to prepare students for admission to their preferred colleges and universities in California, some of the individuals he assisted were the first graduates from their communities to be admitted to Ivy League institutions. One granddaughter of Mexican immigrants became the first Latina Rhodes Scholar and a son of Guatemalan immigrants recently acknowledged Jerry’s guidance when he received a PhD from MIT.

Jerry exhausted his resources helping other people. His hoarse voice and diminishing energy made it difficult for him to find employment, and the COVID-19 pandemic essentially wiped out his consulting service. Jerry will soon turn 89. He has outlived his resources and is seeking financial support in order to stay in his modest apartment. I know he would appreciate your assistance. Will you help a friend of UCLA Athletics and advocate for underrepresented students?