Jennifer Orning Griswold graduated from Carolina with a degree in biology in 2001, then her medical education took her to Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago before coming back to North Carolina to practice neurosurgery (today she practices at Vidant Health in Greenville).

No matter where she went, a local alumni group convening to watch football or basketball games gave her a sense of connection back home.

“Athletics meant so much to me,” she says. “The games brought us all together. No matter where I was, I could always count on having a group of people that unified me in some strange city. Then when I came back home, I reconnected with a lot of old friends at football games. Carolina athletics were always a safe haven for me.”

Which is why as her career developed and she had the resources to give back to the University, she found an opportunity in the Tar Heel athletic program to make a gift.

Jenny grew up in Jacksonville, N.C., attended Jacksonville High School and was friends with Quincy Monk, who played at rival White Oak High before attending Carolina and playing football from 1998-2001.

“I wouldn’t say we were ‘best friends,’ but we saw  each other all the time, ran in some of the same circles,” she says. “I knew Quincy well enough to know what a good person he was, what a strong heart he had. He was always unflappable. We called him ‘the gentle giant.’ He must have gotten every ounce of anger and frustration he ever felt in life out on the football field because you never could make him upset.”

After a three-year career in the NFL and a return to the Triangle area to begin a business career and raise a family, Monk died in November 2015 of adenocarcinoma, an aggressive form of cancer. The Quincy Monk Linebacker Room has been endowed by his former teammates in Monk’s honor.

Now Jenny has stepped up to give a scholarship in Monk’s name.

“When I heard about his struggles, it was very poignant to me,” she says. “I was always interested in giving back to Carolina Athletics at some point. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so in a way that honored someone I thought was an amazing person.”

Among many reasons to make the gift was the fact that Monk went about his life with grace and a giving spirit while never being a mega-watt star.

“When the younger generation comes in here and knows about Dre Bly or Julius Peppers or Sam Howell or whatever the big Carolina name you want to pick out, I’d like them to see this scholarship for Quincy Monk and ask, ‘Who’s Quincy Monk?’” she says. “Maybe they can figure out it’s not just your stats that leave a legacy. What he really did through Carolina Athletics was to support his team, reinforce the guys doing well and help the guys who are struggling.”

“Athletics has a way of uniting a university and a community, and Quincy was the essence of that spirit.”