UPB Youth Charitable Foundation scholarship recipient, Kelly Ho, reflects on the organization and her time at UPB

September 22, 2022

By Madisen Carter

Unlimited Potential Basketball’s Youth Charitable Foundation launched in the fall of 2020, and has a mission to “create opportunities for underserved children to experience the lifelong benefits of youth sports.” The main goal of the program is to ensure children who normally would not have access to our training are given a safe space to grow through sports and learn the value of positive leadership, hard work, confidence, and stepping out of their comfort zones.

Over a year ago, Kelly Ho was awarded a scholarship through UPB’s Youth Charitable Foundation, and she has continuously been putting in the work and improving her skills. Ho has been working out at UPB since August of 2018, and has put in over 220 hours of training at the facility. Since she has been at the gym, Ho has participated in the group training, point guard clinics, summer camps, all girls clinics, and private training sessions.

Ho started playing basketball when she was in the second grade in a Church summer league with her brothers and her friends. Her brothers knew about a club called Bay City, and when she was in the third grade, her mom decided to get her involved with the club. Ho said as she continued to play, the game became fun and she fell in love with it.

Ho heard about the foundation from UPB’s CEO, Bianca Turner. Ho believed the opportunity would be beneficial for her and would help improve her skills, so she decided to apply. During the application process for UPB’s Youth Charitable Foundation, Ho was required to write an essay. The prompt asked about Ho’s past experiences in basketball and how she got involved in the game, what good characteristics of a basketball player are and how she can use those characteristics when she plays.

Along with the essay, Ho had to display her passion for improving her skills in the game of basketball, be open to mental skills training, and maintain a 3.0 GPA in school. The benefits the scholarship provides an individual are free training for a year, UPB gear, mentoring, weekly training homework and more.

During her overall time at UPB, Ho explained that she has definitely seen a difference in her game, and has enjoyed working with the trainers at UPB. Ho said she would recommend the foundation to other basketball players because being at the gym has “been really good, and my favorite part is all the coaches [that] are supporting me. They encourage me and always tell me what to do to be better.”

Now in high school at Archbishop Riordan, Ho has the goal of making the girls basketball team. Tryouts for the team are on Halloween night, and until then, she is focusing her time at UPB to become a more consistent shooter. We are so proud of the growth Ho has shown in her game, and we wish her good luck at her tryouts and the rest of her future endeavors in basketball!

You can click here to learn more about UPB’s Youth Charitable Foundation!