ATLANTA, GA, UNITED STATES, October 26, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- PowerUP Scholarship Fund, Inc. (“PowerUP”), an Atlanta-based mentorship program for disadvantaged youth, announces a generous gift from C. Tycho Howle. Tycho is a longtime friend and mentor of PowerUP Chairman, Austin Scee.

Tycho’s gift will fully fund 40 PowerUP scholarship students for a year. Additionally, his financial support enabled PowerUP to hire its first executive director, Connor Cook.

Austin shared that he was working for Tycho at Harbinger when he was matched with Mike Gandy Auzenne through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Atlanta. Mike got to know the Harbinger team, joining Austin on company outings such as the house that Harbinger built for Habitat for Humanity.

“While I was mentoring Mike, Tycho was mentoring me. Now Tycho is supporting Mike and me in our mission to mentor hundreds of at risk kids in Atlanta. Tycho’s support means the world to us.” Austin Scee, PowerUP Co-Founder

Tom Avery is a former business associate of Tycho’s and a friend to both Tycho and Austin, but he didn’t know about Austin’s involvement in Big Brothers until he joined the PowerUP board in 2017.

“I’m ecstatic to have Tycho, one of my oldest and dearest friends, supporting our mission.” Tom Avery, Board Director with PowerUP

Tycho shared his excitement about the PowerUP mission, adding,

“Austin has given me many reasons to be proud of him and his work. Successful businessman, great friend and mentor to a young man whose life would likely have been a lot different without Austin's involvement, and finally trying to do something to help underprivileged kids but on a larger scale with PowerUP. Austin, Mike and Tom are truly inspirations!" Tycho Howle, Blue Belt Sponsor

About C. Tycho Howle

Tycho is a Clemson University and Harvard Business School graduate and began his career working with McKinsey & Company, Hewlett Packard and Booz, Allen & Hamilton. In 1983, he founded Harbinger Corporation, a high growth eCommerce company. Tycho built Harbinger from a startup through an initial public offering in 1995. Harbinger acquired several complementary eCommerce businesses and was acquired and taken private in 2000. Tycho went on to found nuBridges, Inc., also in the eCommerce space, building that business through organic growth and acquisitions until it was acquired. Tycho is currently retired, and enjoying his role as grandfather. Tycho and his family formed the C. Tycho and Marie Howle Charitable Foundation, which has made more than 1,000 grants to support education, healthcare, the homeless, and the arts.

About PowerUP Scholarship Fund, Inc.

PowerUP was founded by Austin Scee and Mike Gandy Auzenne who were matched in the Big Brothers Big Sisters (“BBBS”) program in Atlanta in 1997. Through Austin’s mentorship, Mike went from the projects of Atlanta to Colgate, Wall Street, Harvard Business School (“HBS”) and beyond. In 2016, when Mike graduated from HBS, he and Austin set out to build a mentorship model that could deliver the core elements of the mentorship Mike received through a more scalable model. In early 2017, the pair founded PowerUP.

PowerUP partners with martial arts senseis for their dedication to the education and whole-self development of at-risk youth. PowerUP’s senseis teach core values like self-control, resilience, and respect and are able to effectively mentor 30 to 60 kids with proven results. Martial arts are unique among other sporting activities in that these values are deeply rooted in the training, and culture.

With its highly scalable model, PowerUP has seen over 500% growth in participants over the last three years and aims to serve over 1,000 students by the end of 2022.

Visit www.powerupscholarship.org for more information.

Austin Scee
PowerUP Scholarship Fund, Inc.
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