Kesses announce scholarship fund

On Jan. 24, 2006, UCF alumna Jennifer Kesse vanished from her condo by the Mall at Millenia. Police believe she was abducted and not a shred of evidence has developed since her disappearance.

Five years later, this hasn't stopped the Kesse family from relentlessly searching for Jennifer.

On Friday, as part of the five-year mark since her abduction, the Kesse family and UCF's criminal justice department announced the Jennifer Kesse Criminal Justice Endowed Scholarship. The announcement was made at a small press conference at the Fairwinds Alumni Center. The check was presented to Ross Wolf, associate professor and coordinator of the criminal justice graduate program.

The Jennifer Kesse Scholarship will award $1,000 each year to a Florida resident who is a UCF graduate student in criminal justice. The recipient must have a 3.0 or better grade point average and write a 500-word essay about the effectiveness of the Jennifer Kesse and Tiffany Sessions Missing Persons Act, a law the Kesses helped pass in 2008.

The law expands the missing child alert system, where a missing person's DNA up to age 26 will be entered into local, state and national databases.

The Kesse family have done everything they can to keep awareness up, honor her memory and improve the criminal justice system, particularly in the area of missing persons.

"We will never give up hope and will continue to search for her," said Drew Kesse, Jennifer's father.

Wolf thinks the concept of the scholarship will be a big stepping stone for criminal justice majors to further their education.

"It is the first scholarship solely for master's degree students in criminal justice at UCF," he said. "And because it is an endowed scholarship, it will benefit criminal justice students in perpetuity--always in honor of their daughter, Jennifer Kesse."

An endowed scholarship means the funds used to establish it are invested and the accrued interest is awarded as the actual scholarship. The Kesse family provided the initial $1,000 as a gift so it can be awarded in the fall. Since there isn't any accrued interest yet, the family is asking friends, family and the community to donate to the scholarship.

Anyone can donate online through the College of Health and Public Affairs website, www.cohpa.ucf.edu.

Westgate Resorts, where Jennifer used to work, gave an additional $1,000 toward the scholarship.

"This is the best thing we have done so far," said her 26-year-old brother, Logan Kesse. "We will always keep playing a roll in this scholarship and this is something that we can do that will last forever."

The Kesse family hopes the scholarship will not only keep Jennifer's memory alive, especially within the university that she loved, but will encourage further education with criminal justice students.

After Jennifer's abduction, Drew said he found that there are many problems when it comes to law enforcement training for missing persons. He said that after five years, Florida law enforcement and the FBI have given up.

"Our criminal justice system really needs help," Drew said at the press conference.

Jennifer's mother, Joyce Kesse, said that after Jennifer's disappearance, the family has since attended numerous conferences about missing persons and each one always has the same message: The first responder is the most important part of a missing persons investigation.

"We feel that the first responders in this case were [not trained enough] and we want this scholarship to help Orlando have better trained law enforcement in this area," Joyce said.

"Also, the scholarship will help keep her image and memory around. Awareness is everything in a missing person's case."

Drew said giving the scholarship to a UCF student was one of the best ways to honor Jennifer.

"UCF was her life," he said. "She chose to stay in Orlando after she graduated because she loved her life here. This is exactly what she would have wanted us to do."

A portrait of Jennifer, drawn and donated by Donnell Rector, a friend of the family, will hang in the department of criminal justice in recognition of the family and scholarship.