SWTJC Student awarded the 2014 Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship

Uvalde, Texas – George Melchor, a student at Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde, is one of 85 students to receive a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship is the largest private scholarship for two-year and community college transfer students in the country. The Foundation provides as much as $30,000 a year for up to three years to the nation’s best low-income community college students seeking to complete a bachelor’s degree at an accredited college or university.

“The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has answered all my hopes and prayers and I can finally look forward to my future education without worrying about paying for tuition,” said Melchor.

This cohort is the largest in the program’s 13-year history, with 85 finalists selected from 3,705 applications representing 737 community colleges from 48 states, two U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.

“The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has long been committed to helping outstanding community college students transfer to and succeed at the nation’s top colleges and universities,” said Emily Froimson, Vice President of Programs, in a press release announcing this year’s scholarship recipients.

Froimson added, “Since the program started in 2002, the Foundation has supported 643 community college students directly, and thousands more through the Foundation’s grant making initiatives.”

Scholars were selected based on high academic ability and achievements, persistence, leadership, and financial need. The average GPA of the incoming class is 3.98 and the Scholars come from families with an average adjusted gross income of approximately $25,000. They plan to attend competitive institutions such as Georgetown, Cornell, Stanford and Columbia, as well as numerous selective state universities.