After graduating with honors from Universal Technical Institute’s (UTI) Rancho Cucamonga, CA, campus in January, Jennifer LaFever is now taking the next step to pursue her passion for cars and fulfill her dream of a career in motorsports.
LaFever, who grew up tinkering on cars with her father in southern California, was selected as a 2010 Brienne Davis Scholarship recipient.
“When I applied for the scholarship, I was focused on finding much needed financial relief, and receiving the scholarship has definitely relieved those concerns,” said LaFever. “After meeting so many people that Brienne impacted, I feel honored with the responsibility to represent her memory to the best of my ability.”
The scholarship, named in memory of former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series official Brienne Davis, is presented annually to three aspiring women who wish to pursue careers in automotive or NASCAR industries at any one of UTI’s 11 campuses nationwide.
“Beyond the obvious help with paying for my schooling, winning the scholarship has opened doors that otherwise might have taken years to accomplish,” commented LaFever.
While at UTI-Rancho Cucamonga, LaFever tackled courses such as Engine Repair, Fuel and Ignition Systems, Advanced Diagnostics, and Street Legal Performance. She posted a perfect 4.0 GPA and attendance, and also made the Directors List 15 times. She’s an Alpha Beta Kappa Honor Society member, achieved “Student of the Course Award” for being the top student in 13 of her 17 courses, and served as a UTI peer tutor.
LaFever even participated in a high performance engine building group that put together the best combination of performance parts to register the highest horsepower gain out of all students during runs on the dynamometer.
LaFever, who hopes to one day follow in Davis’ footsteps and work full time in motorsports, is now on to the next phase of her training. She enrolled in UTI’s Mooresville, NC-based NASCAR Technical Institute campus and is currently studying NASCAR elective courses.
“I have quite a variety of options in front of me, but what I know for sure is I want to use my education and experience to contribute to someone’s engineering efforts,” said LaFever, who began classes at NASCAR Technical Institute in March.
For more information on the UTI Brienne Davis Scholarship, visit www.utifoundation.net.
Source: NASCAR Performance
