Success in Education

As the Road to Success reading challenge is now in full swing for the 2024-2025 school year, we wanted to reflect on the incredible impact made last year. Check out this article about Jade, a fifth grader from Viewmont Elementary! Jade received the my529/Road to Success $1,000 scholarship. Each year, my529 hosts a Read-a-thon through the Road to Success program. The top reader from each school is put into a drawing, and one recipient is chosen from each school district. We are so happy for Jade and excited about this year's upcoming winners! Thank you to my529 for your continuous support of the Road to Success program and its mission to support Utah readers! The purpose of Road to Success is to improve the literacy skills of K-6 grade students through incentivized daily reading tracking. We are devoted to seeing students improve academically by rewarding their educational accomplishments in partnership with their schools. We know that students who develop an independent reading habit early will more readily achieve their future academic and career goals.

You don’t want to miss this first-of-its-kind event where Success in Education will be a charity partner! Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/gVEVBgNg

Last Friday, our team had the amazing opportunity to host the Keys to Success Student Ambassador Launch at the Lehi Adobe campus to kick off this school year. A special thank you to the phenomenal Shelly Ruff for providing us with this inspiring space as she works to connect Utah students to Adobe's Creative Tools! We have 55 Juniors and Seniors from 34 schools around the state preparing to represent the Keys to Success mission on behalf of our foundation. Do you have a student who's looking for leadership experience, access to exclusive scholarships and fun workshops? We will be recruiting for new ambassadors Spring 2025! You can learn more here in the meantime: ktsutah.org/ktsambassadors

This week, Success in Education and the ROBERT H AND KATHARINE B GARFF FOUNDATION were delighted to serve as Title Sponsors for the Honors in Education Gala, hosted by First Lady Abby Cox. We echo the first lady's remarks: "We are fortunate to have some of the most dedicated and talented teachers in our schools who are doing an amazing job in educating our children. As the foundation of our communities, teachers deserve our unwavering support and deepest appreciation." We are proud to recognize, support, celebrate, and SHOW UP for Utah's educators.

It was a successful week "blasting" our way to a brighter future at our annual Utah Executive Sporting Clay Shoot! We had a tremendous 260 participants across three days, raising over $400,000 for Utah students! Each participant received a free Gozney Roccbox Pizza Oven, thanks to the support of Scheels. A huge thanks to our event sponsors: Ken Garff Automotive Group, Capita Financial Network, Mountain America Credit Union, GBS Benefits, Inc., Scheels, Precision Contracting, IMA Financial Group, Inc., Ameritas, R&R BBQ, Select Health, PPG, National Processing, US Synthetic, and UNIFIED CONTRACTORS. Additionally, we extend gratitude to those individuals and organizations that offered in-kind sponsorship for auction items. Success in Education appreciates the support of Wasatch Wing and Clay's Scholastic Youth Shooting Team- as they supported each of the shooting stations throughout the three days. We were honored to award them $5,000 in gratitude and recognition of their work. Finally, hats off to Rick Clayton, Kami Packard, Kaitlin Dietrich and team for their work in "pulling" together to create such an outstanding event!

Over 23,000 Utah students enrolled in the Road To Success Challenge this year! Together they read over 54,000 books and logged over 21 million reading minutes! 📚🤩 41 schools across Utah participated in the challenge, and each school had one lucky winner of a bicycle! These students each logged at least 1,660 minutes--over 27 hours of reading! As Kathi Garff, Ken Garff Automotive Group Board Chairwoman & Founder of Success in Education, puts it, "Reading is the whole key to success," and we couldn't agree more! We're so proud of these amazing students! 📕📘📗📙🌟

Congratulations to Brenda from Cyprus High School, this year's Keys to Success car winner! 🎉 The Ken Garff foundation Success in Education has been doing our car giveaways for 20 years together with Mountain America Credit Union! This year, Brenda was one of 20 students selected out of more than 9,000 finalists based on academic achievement. We're proud to support the Success in Education foundation's efforts in promoting lifelong learning! Congrats, Brenda!!

Join us in welcoming Joshua Fox as our newest Director of Technology Education! As a former collegiate esports athlete, coach, and tournament organizer, he brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the role. About Josh Fox 👇 Joshua Fox’s love and experience with esports gained traction when he began competing nationally for the University of Utah in CRL or Collegiate Rocket League. At the same time, he earned his bachelor's degree in business administration and was a volunteer esports coach for Special Olympics Utah. With experience, his passion grew beyond just competing with the U. He turned to education where he got first-hand experience planning and assisting with impactful events like the Ken Garff Esports Spring Celebration and regional events throughout the years. This has allowed Josh to create a deeper connection to our students. Josh is passionate about helping grow our community starting at the foundation of scholastic esports. Undeniably, his value for education is fueled by the possible opportunities and growth that he can help provide in and out of the classroom. Esports itself is growing exponentially and it is his mission to continue providing a healthy and inclusive space for Utah students.

💕A heartfelt farewell to our Director of Technology Education, Audra Yocom💕 We are saddened to announce the departure of Audra Yocom from Success in Education.  Audra has decided to return to the classroom full-time as an educator with Alpine School District.  While this is most certainly a loss on our part, we fully support Audra’s decision to pursue her calling and passion in education.  We are confident that she will continue to be an inspiring and influential teacher, just as she has been a remarkable colleague and professional.      During her time with Success in Education, Audra has grown the Ken Garff Esports program to serve more than 2,500 students in 99 clubs statewide.  Among her most notable accomplishments were the vision, planning and execution of the annual Spring Celebration championships- hosting industry giants such as Nintendo America President Doug Bowser and Spacestation Gaming Founder Shaun McBride.  She created premier technology opportunities for students, including cybersecurity and coding bootcamps, hackathons, industry workshops, and presented nationally as an industry leader.    Success in Education wishes Audra all the best in her continued work as an educator.   Her legacy will live for years to come for students across the state of Utah.    Please join us in thanking Audra for her contributions and wishing her continued success!

What an incredible week at the annual Ken Garff Hole in One Challenge Golf Tournament! This year we extended to three full days- thanks to collaboration on partnering flights with the Utah Jazz and Utah Crimson Collective! It was a smashing success with 11 hole in ones for a 1-year lease on a brand new vehicle provided by Ken Garff Automotive Group. For the first time, we also hosted a "$100K Hole", sponsored by Precision Contracting! A heartfelt thank you to all who participated, supported, and made this event a huge success- raising significant funds that help us "change the world, one student at a time". Many thanks to our event sponsors: IMA Salt Lake City, GBS Benefits, Inc., Capita Financial Network, Ally, Tranont, Reynolds & Reynolds, CUDL, BDO, Bank of America, KSL Cars, Chase Automation, Precision Contractors, American Credit Acceptance, Capital One, Minky Couture Designer Blankets, America First Credit Union Wasatch Financial, Santander, Experian, US Synthetic, Wells Fargo, Westlake Financial, United Contractors, Inc, Informativ (formerly Credit Bureau Connection, Dealer Safeguard & CreditDriver), U.S. Bank, TD, ADESA, WCF Insurance, Cox Automotive Inc., Select Health, Solera, Inc., BTJD, Gallagher, CARFAX, Moreton & Company, Rhinehart Oil Co, PPG, and National Processing.