The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation announced that A-B Tech Students Chandler Beiler and Adam Burkins have been named semifinalists for its Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship.
Cooke Transfer Scholars are selected based on exceptional academic ability and achievement, financial need, persistence, service to others, and leadership. Students must be currently enrolled in community college students.
Burkins, an i3-STEM scholarship student, had already been selected for one of 12 2018-19 Community College STEM Scholarships. He was also accepted into the NASA L’SPACE Virtual Academy, which is a collaboration with NASA’s Lucy Mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. He is earning an Associate in Science and is planning to transfer to UNCA for a Mechatronics degree.
"I found out about the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship through the i3-STEM Advisors,” Burkins said. “The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is an amazing organization that has grants and scholarships for a lot of different levels of education. I am very grateful to be a semi-finalist, and just to be selected is an honor in its self. I can only hope to be selected as a finalist."
Beiler plans to graduate in May with associate degrees in Arts, Science, and Engineer and would like to transfer to N.C. State for electrical engineering specializing in audio digital signal processing in audio equipment.
“Throughout my childhood, I was always fascinated by the way machines in our world work,” Beiler said.” I was constantly working on projects and creating machines with building materials around the house. However, I would never have foreseen engineering as a career until just a few years ago. There have been many different influencers throughout my life leading me into electrical engineering and I know that this pathway will allow me to combine many passions in my life to make a difference in my community.”
Through this community college transfer scholarship, the Foundation supports high-achieving community college students as they transfer to some of the top four-year institutions in the country to complete their bachelor’s degrees. This year’s semifinalists were chosen from a pool of nearly 1,500 applicants attending 369 schools in 45 states and the District of Columbia
The Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship recipients will be announced in April. Each selected scholar will be provided generous financial support for up to three years, college planning services, ongoing advising, and the opportunity to connect with a thriving community of fellow Cooke Scholars.
