Announcing our 75 New Undergraduate Transfer Scholars

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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