English instructor dies of cancer

By Megan Perry

Due to the cancer that spread throughout her body, English instructor Genice Everhart died at the young age of 61 on April 16.

In her memory, the English department started a scholarship for English as a Second Language students, the Genice Everhart Scholarship. It is a $500 scholarship that the English department awarded on May 10 at the East Los Angeles College Scholarship Foundation Banquet that took place at Steven’s Steakhouse.

Everhart was a full-time instructor in the English department for the English as a Second Language classes and taught at ELAC since about 1992. Her love for ELAC began when she started as a substitute teacher a few years before. “The attitude of the students and the faculty is very positive … ELAC has always been one of my favorite places,” Everhart said in a Campus News article in March 1994.

Everhart had a real passion for the ESL students and was always very concerned with them. Her students were always in the English department looking for her assistance and guidance. “I love the variety among my students, because there are so many different countries represented here,” Everhart said in the same article mentioned earlier.

Everhart, along with Sharon Allerson, hosted an in-store fundraiser at the Chimmaya Art Gallery in December 2008 that donated the funds raised to the English Department Recognition Scholarship. Chimmaya Art Gallery would donate 15 percent cash back toward the scholarship, which would benefit the ESL students who applied.

Everhart was a long-time donor to the ELAC Scholarship Foundation for scholarships that would give back to the students who attended ELAC. She was willing to help those who were in need.

In the 1994 article, she said she liked to teach the ESL students because they seemed to be the most motivated. She obtained a Bachelor’s in English at a small school in South Dakota, then came to California State University Los Angeles for her Master’s in ESL classes. As she taught full time as an instructor at ELAC, she also taught part time at Long Beach City College concurrently.

Paulette Jaurequi, the English Department contact person, said that Everhart was a great woman who had a great passion for students. “She was a great instructor. All of her students really loved her. She did a lot for her students,” Jaurequi said.

Everhart has left her mark on the world with two scholarships and more than two decades of teaching English