JBHE: Latest News for 11/30/06

Eight Blacks Named Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholars

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship Program was established to provide financial assistance for graduate study to college seniors who are moving on to advanced education. The generous scholarships, which may provide up to $300,000 over six years, enable the winners to complete graduate school training without worries over how to pay the price.

This year eight of the 76 Jack Kent Cooke scholars are black. Here are brief profiles of the eight academically gifted black students who graduated from college this past spring and are now pursuing graduate studies:

• Dede Adomaykpor, a native of the African nation Togo, graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Adomaykpor plans to pursue a Ph.D. in economics at American University in Washington, D.C.

• Deirdre E. Baskin is a native of South Bend, Indiana. She attended Ivy Tech State College, a community college in South Bend, before transferring to the University of Indianapolis where she followed a pre-law curriculum. Now 26 years old, Baskin is enrolled at Indiana University School of Law.

• Alnisa S. Bell majored in political science at Bryn Mawr College. She is currently enrolled in the law school at Rutgers University and hopes to one day be a human rights lawyer with an international nonprofit organization.

• Kevin A. Curry of Dallas, Texas, is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. There he pursued a double major in Spanish and business administration. Now 25 years old, he currently is enrolled in the graduate program in public policy at Harvard University.

• Yanique T. Matthews majored in psychology at Smith College, the prestigious women’s college in Northampton, Massachusetts. A native of Trinidad, Matthews is pursuing a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

• Michelle A. Mitchell was a home-schooled student from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She went on to major in political science and economics at Georgetown University. She is interested in a career in international law and is currently enrolled at the Georgetown University Law Center.

• Julius A. Onah is a native of Ogoja, Nigeria. He majored in theater at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He is now pursuing a master’s in fine arts degree at New York University. He wants to be a filmmaker.

• Rubiahna Vaughn majored in human biology at Stanford University. She is currently working toward a master’s in public health degree and hopes to continue on to medical school. She would like one day to run a community health center and develop community healthcare programs.