The Utah Jazz gave out 114 college scholarships. Here’s what happened next.

University of Utah student Nathalia Montoya succinctly described why her family moved from Venezuela to the United States just over 10 years ago.

“We got blackmailed. It wasn’t safe for us to live there anymore.”

Montoya and her family were victims of political persecution in the South American country, she said, with her father’s role as an airport official resulting in threats that put the Montoyas at significant unease. They sought asylum, and the U.S. government agreed they were in danger, allowing them to immigrate to Florida. Two years later, they moved to Utah.

Montoya studied. She devoted her time to reading everything she could, learning English.

She was a good student, it turned out — good enough to earn a scholarship to college.

It wasn’t just any scholarship she received, though: Montoya was selected as one of the Utah Jazz scholars. During the 2020-21 and 2021-22 NBA seasons, the Jazz awarded a college scholarship covering the full cost of one student’s attendance — tuition, room and board, books, and nearly everything else — each time the team won on the basketball court.

In all, 114 were awarded to Utah high school students from underrepresented groups — students like Montoya.

From the beginning, the scholarship born in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement gaining traction in the NBA was met with conservative backlash. Fox commentators Ann Coulter and Tucker Carlson, among others, ripped the Jazz program.

In their view, giving scholarships to minority students reflected a “reverse racism” that permeated American society. Between 2020 and 2024, the share of Americans believing there is “a great deal” of racism towards white people increased from 23 to 39 percent, according to polling from the Democracy Fund. The election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency for the second time and the rise of anti-immigration policies have many minority communities concerned.

Meanwhile, the on-court fortunes of the Jazz have fallen, the team has gone from having the NBA‘s best record to its worst in the course of four seasons. Jazz owner Ryan Smith, who once proclaimed that his organization would be “actively anti-racist,” has toned down that rhetoric publicly. And the Smith Entertainment Group “paused” the awarding of new scholarships after the 2022 season, though they say that the program will return in some capacity in the years to come.

And in the course of those years, those students have lived their collegiate lives. The first class will graduate this month, entering the workforce with the experience their universities and the Jazz Scholars program has given them.

“For a long time I wanted to do medicine, because I thought that’s how I was going to help people,” Montoya said. “But then I started seeing the law, and politics, and the impact that they have on people. And so I decided to do something with that.”

Jazz scholars are becoming lawyers, teachers, public administrators, or working in finance. Several others are pursuing multiple degrees during their time on scholarship, with secondary education to follow. The Jazz connected their scholarship recipients to 32 companies in a recent career exploratory seminar, with job and internship offers following.

“It changed my life,” Montoya said.

In the ensuing years, the world changed, too.

Backgrounds and getting the scholarship

To talk to the Jazz Scholars is to get a cross-section of minority groups’ lives in Utah.

Graduating senior Sergio Vasquez’s parents immigrated from the Mexican state of Sonora, before giving birth to Sergio and his two sisters. The Vasquez family lives in Tropic, Utah; his dad works in maintenance for a Bryce Canyon tour company, while his mom is a housekeeper at the national park.

Junior William Gustave was born in Tanzania to two parents who escaped genocide — one in Rwanda, one in Burundi. They, and his three siblings, moved to the U.S. when William was 5, first able to survive in Utah thanks to the donations provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

And fellow junior Daniel Nguyen‘s parents both were refugees from Vietnam; his grandfather a general for the Vietnamese Army. The pair found peace in Provo, where Daniel was born.

All of the 114 Jazz Scholars come from underrepresented groups. All demonstrated financial need. 87% of them are first-generation college students — the first in their immediate family to attend college. 55% are women.

“At every stage we look and say, ‘Where is there a big need in the community? Where can we invest in a way that hopefully has a lasting difference?,’” Mike Maughan, a Smith Entertainment Group executive, said.

For some students, applying for the scholarship was done on a lark. Vasquez, for example, learned about it on TikTok, and figured he’d give it a shot while he tried out for an athletic scholarship elsewhere. Nguyen targeted the Jazz’s scholarship as a potential source for private funding — it was one of 40 he applied for as he tried to pay for his collegiate education.

The Jazz employed educational nonprofit 10,000 Degrees to help filter through the applications. When winners were decided on, the Jazz prioritized surprise in their notification process. Some were called into an “interview” that turned into a party in the Jazz’s locker room.

Others, like Gustave, received a personal touch from a celebrity. In his case, former Jazz All-Star Donovan Mitchell FaceTimed his phone from a number Gustave didn’t know. He decided to pick up the call anyway, and got a shock few will ever feel.

“I was like, ‘Oh my goodness,’” Gustave said about the day Mitchell told him he’d be receiving his college education free of charge. “This is the best day of my life.”

The Gustaves threw a party, inviting family and friends from the refugee community to celebrate. William felt his fortunes had turned. “This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, to go to college, to be the first generation,” he said.

“I felt a great sense of accomplishment, and I felt the proudness that came from my parents. I was overwhelmed by the generosity that the scholarship has given me, the opportunity that had been given to me, the impact it was going to have on my life.”

Utah strikes back

As Gustave and the other recipients in the first round of scholarships celebrated, a selection of Utah’s Republican politicians turned a skeptical eye.

It began with more mild questioning. State Sen. Dan McCay, for example, asked his Twitter followers whether an equivalent scholarship for white students would have been racist: “If a private group decides to create a scholarship with the criteria that the recipient be a low income, caucasian child … is the scholarship racist? I’m sincerely interested in the rationale either way.” A firestorm ensued, and the tweet is now deleted.

Gov. Spencer Cox, though, defended the scholarship.

“It’s an awesome program and it’s something that we should be celebrating. … We’re working very hard on equity, making sure that every kid in our state has the same opportunities as others,” Cox said on a KSL NewsRadio program where callers could ask the governor questions. “And so looking for ways to lift communities that have been historically and disproportionately impacted isn’t racist at all. In fact, it’s a great way to overcome racism. And I’m really proud of the Jazz and the great things that they’re doing.”

Political tides turned quickly.

In the same week the first year’s Jazz scholars received the phone calls from players letting them know they’d won the diversity scholarship, the state Legislature met and passed a resolution decrying the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools, as Democratic representatives walked out. On the federal level, Utah Sen. Mike Lee said CRT “weaponized diversity.”

Later in 2021, upon criticism from young Jazz star Donovan Mitchell on the policy, Senate President Stuart Adams responded by saying Mitchell “didn’t really understand what happened.” Later, Mitchell would call the experience “draining.”

June of 2023 saw the U.S. Supreme Court ban the practice of “affirmative action,” preventing race from being used in the college admissions process. Six months later, Utah state Republicans banned Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs at the collegiate level, with Cox giving enthusiastic support to the measure.

“I feel like they’re much more divisive right now than they are unifying, and we are a pluralistic society,” Cox said of diversity programs at the state’s universities.

The Jazz “paused” the awarding of new scholarships after the 2021-22 season. “What we found was that with the level of support we are providing, that digesting 114 all at once was a lot, and we needed to take some time to make sure that we could provide the incredible experience we want for all of them,” Maughan, the Smith Entertainment Group executive, said.

Today, support for the Jazz scholarships is used to strike against Cox from his right flank. Gubernatorial race rival Phil Lyman, for example, tweeted about the subject on Feb. 16.

It’s also used as a cudgel against the Smith Entertainment Group. When team owner Smith tweeted a photo from a November lunch with the University of Utah’s Jazz Scholars, online replies were mostly negative.

“Anything you do in life, there will be some negative reaction here and there,” Maughan said when asked about the response. “I think overwhelmingly the reaction has been positive.”

SEG chief communications officer Caroline Klein concurred. “As an organization, we know we’re doing the right thing … There’s conviction in knowing that this scholarship is making a difference.”

The team also promises to revamp and release a new version of the scholarship program in the years to come.

“The program is not over by a long shot,” Maughan said. “We will keep it going.”

Preparing for graduation

Against this backdrop, the Jazz scholars are living out their educational dreams, both in and out of school, as they prepare to graduate.

Vasquez, for example, is chasing a career in the legal field. As he’s earned his major in political science, he’s joined the University of Utah’s student government. Connections through the Utah Jazz Scholarship program gave him an internship in Entrata‘s legal department, which he followed up with another stint interning for the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

He spent time presenting bills to Utah state legislators in the most recent session, and will apply to law schools next year.

“I might have started off in a DEI program, but I know that from here on, I have a great resume. If I further myself as a professional where I feel like I’m as good as any candidate there is,” Vasquez said. “I know without it, I would be 10 steps behind where I am, and I do pay respects to that.”

Gustave, meanwhile, wants to become an architect. The Jazz program connected him with an internship with local architecture firm Ezra Lee Design + Build; after he graduates, he plans on attending a two-year master’s program in the field, though he hasn’t yet decided if it will be in or out of Utah.

Nguyen is well on the path to becoming a doctor, and while he doesn’t know exactly what specialty he’ll decide on yet, he’s leaning towards cardiology or dermatology. Regarding the latter, he’s currently assisting skin care doctors at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

He was also the University of Utah’s homecoming king this past fall.

In talking to the scholars, it’s hard not to notice a consistent pattern — there seems to be a ripple effect of the scholarships expanding outward from those who received them. Nguyen, for example, became president of the U.’s First Generation Scholars club, where he helps others without Jazz connections achieve their goals.

“A lot of students, they tell me, ‘Oh, I called the internship you helped me apply for,’ or they thank me for helping them put together their resume or their cover letters. … We take them to activities. We take them to service events,” Nguyen said. “The biggest thing that we teach them is not being scared to fail.”

Montoya, meanwhile, wants to be a lawyer. She’s interned for a Utah 3rd District judge, and for Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics. One particular path especially intrigues her: immigration law.

“I know that not a lot of people get to have this opportunity, to be able to go to college debt free. And so every day, I wake up grateful that I have it in my life,” Montoya said.

“Eventually, I can work hard to give back to the community and the people that were like me.”

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