Student Wins Prestigious Cooke Foundation Scholarship
Jennifer Tolliver Excited to Pursue Psychology Degrees
MELBOURNE, FLA. — Junior Jennifer Tolliver has won an Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, a prestigious achievement that awards community college students with up to $40,000 per year for up to three years to complete their bachelor’s degree.
A Kissimmee resident, Tolliver, 36, graduated from Valencia College in May with a 4.0 GPA as a member of the school’s Seneff Honors College. She is one of just 50 community college students nationwide to receive the Cooke Foundation’s Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship in 2020.
She arrived at Florida Tech in August to study psychology.
“It’s my life’s ambition,” she said of her academic pursuit, “and I am very fortunate to have had the support of Valencia College Seneff’s Honors College as well as the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and now the Florida Institute of Technology in realizing that dream.”
The Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship is designed to help reduce financial barriers for talented students applying to selective colleges and universities. In addition to the financial award, selected students receive college planning guidance and ongoing advising throughout their college experience and early career. Additionally, Cooke Scholars are eligible to apply for up to $75,000 of funding toward graduate school.
Since 2000, the Foundation has awarded over $222 million in scholarships to nearly 2,800 students from 8th grade through graduate school, along with comprehensive educational advising and other support services. The Foundation has also provided $115 million in grants to organizations that serve such students.
Tolliver said she was drawn to Florida Tech for several reasons.
“Primarily, the amazing PsyD. program that is offered by the university. It is my hope that I begin there as an undergraduate and do not leave until I attain a doctorate. Also what stood out to me about Florida Tech was its amazing growth over the years,” she said. “The university is young when compared against other institutions, but it shines no less brightly. I can only imagine what it will be like by the time I graduate (hopefully as a clinical psychologist), so in a way, I feel that I am growing with the university.”
More information on the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is available at www.jkcf.org/.
