Announcing our 75 New Undergraduate Transfer Scholars
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation today announced it has awarded Undergraduate Transfer Scholarships – each worth up to $40,000 annually – to 75 outstanding community college students with financial need from 21 states who are transferring to four-year colleges.
The Cooke Foundation received more than 2,300 qualified applications for this year’s Undergraduate Transfer Scholarships from 48 states and the District of Columbia.
The new Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholars have strong records of achievement as shown by grades, leadership skills, awards, extraordinary service to others and perseverance in the face of adversity. They have an average GPA of 3.9 (on a 4.0 scale) and the average income index last year was $27,585.
“Many elite colleges and universities are reluctant to admit large numbers of transfer students from community colleges, even when these students have excellent grades and other qualifications,” said Cooke Foundation Executive Director Harold O. Levy. “This is unfair and unwise. The Cooke Foundation’s Undergraduate Transfer Scholars have a long record of success at the most selective colleges and graduate schools, such as the Ivy League in the United States and the University of Oxford in Great Britain. These extraordinary young people have proven repeatedly and conclusively that top community college students have the ability to thrive in top four-year colleges. They deserve equal educational opportunity.”
Listed below are each state’s new Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholars and their community colleges:
Arizona
Derek Fermaint, Mesa Community College
Jason Price, Glendale Community College
Rodrigo Salcido, Pima Community College
Jacob Sorenson, Mesa Community College
California
Ravanna Cantrall, Long Beach City College
Alejandra Carranza, Cerritos College
Joshua DuFault, El Camino College
Katya Echazarreta, San Diego City College
Pontus Goeransson, Saddleback College
Alejandro Gomez, Hartnell College
Joseph Heide, San Diego City College
Kristin Ho, Mt. San Antonio College
Wendy Huerta, San Diego City College
Ilhyun Kim, Glendale Community College
Thaimae Le, San Diego Miramar College
Dalton Leftwich, Saddleback College
Karla Lopez-Sanchez, East Los Angeles College
Jeremy Neill, Orange Coast College
Tynan Perez, Sacramento City College
Thorstein Roe, Fullerton College
Colorado
Russell Derrickson, Front Range Community Colledge
Connecticut
Miranda Wheeler, Northwestern Connecticut Community College
Florida
Andrew Adie, Daytona State College
Juan Joel Albrecht, Miami Dade College
Ihsane Benkhadra, North Broward College
Maria Yuliza Calvo, Seminole State College
Valentina d’Empaire, Miami Dade College
Latifah Maasarani, Seminole State College
Yessica Maltes, Miami Dade College (The Honors College)
Flavio Pacheco, Seminole State College of Florida
Garion Rivera, Indian River State College
Sergey Sterlyadev, Broward College
Shahriar Zamani, Hillsborough Community College
Georgia
Ann Marie Hormeku, Georgia Perimeter College
Illinois
Roxana Berinde, Oakton Community College
Amanda Drexler, Harper College
Eri Svenson, Harper College
Indiana
Caleb Sedam, Ivy Tech Community College
Maryland
Luis Rosales, Montgomery College
Massachusetts
Dalena Nguyen, Massasoit Community College
Stacy Okada, Massachusetts Bay Community College
Viet Phan, Bunker Hill Community College
Nicholas Trent, Massasoit Community College
Michigan
Thaer Arafat, Henry Ford College
Daniel Gebrezgiabhier, Grand Rapids Community College
Minnesota
Angela Garagiola, Century College
Tara Wilso, Century College
Mississippi
Cory Kiper, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
New Jersey
Ernest Dimbo, Essex County College
Therande Jashari, Bergen Community College
McDaniel Jeantus, Union County College
New York
Aurela Dragani, Borough of Manhattan Community College
Katarzyna Maziarz, Kingsborough Community College
Anam Rabbani, Suffolk County Community College
North Carolina
Madison Staves, Gaston College
Andrew Wishon, Cape Fear Community College
Oklahoma
Dallas Elleman, Tulsa Community College
Pennsylvania
Isla Martinez-Iglesias, Manor College
Lavinia Soliman, Montgomery County Community College
Texas
Tiffany Avalos-Lopez, Lone Star College System
Elijah Evans, Southwest Texas Junior College
Angelica Fuentes, Northeast Texas Community College
Ojaswee Giri, North Lake College
Maria Gonzalez-Trevino, Lone Star College System
Rey Laurencio, Lone Star College-CyFair
Muaz Mohammed, Richland College
Itzel Tejeda, El Paso Community College
Edwin Umanzor, Lone Star College
Jessica Velazquez, Northeast Texas Community College
Virginia
Derrick Arthur-Cudjoe, Northern Virginia Community College
Nooshin Bashiri, Northern Virginia Community College
Shahrozia Imtiaz, Northern Virginia Community College
Ayesha Malika Khan, Piedmont Virginia Community College
Manisha Khatri, Northern Virginia Community College
Wisconsin
Graham Pearce, University of Wisconsin – Marshfield/Wood County