Story #13: Desiree Benson

By Olivia Corish

This week, we’re honoring Desiree Benson. Benson was a member of the Trojan and the JEP families, dedicating much of her time at USC to working in the local Los Angeles community. Benson was a member of the ReadersPlus program, where she worked in schools in the surrounding area to help students develop lifelong literacy and math skills. She passed away unexpectedly halfway through her senior year, but her memory lives on in countless ways.

One of those is through the Desiree Benson Award, a work-study grant created by the USC Financial Aid Office in recognition and honor of its namesake’s commitment to service. Each year, one of our JEP family members is honored with the award for their exemplary work with one of our programs. These students have mirrored Benson’s work during their own time at USC – this year’s award winner was Grace Scheg, a Program Coordinator with ReadersPlus who also volunteers with Project Sunshine.

We at JEP are grateful for all Benson has done to inspire our past, present, and future students as well as our faculty and staff.