Student Union
Scholarship Awards Up to $40,000 Are Available to Transfer Students
Carmen Escudero, a second-year student at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, New York, said she would use the scholarship money she is hoping to win to pave her path toward medical school.
“It would help financially for my family and especially for me,” said Escudero, a biology student and member of LaGuardia’s Student Government Association, as well as several honors and research programs.
“I wouldn’t have to have so many jobs on the side to pay for school,” said Escudero, who immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia at 5-years-old and lived most of her life as an undocumented immigrant.
She is looking at the possibility of up to $40,000 annually in financial aid from the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. It is awarded to students at U.S. community colleges going on to complete their bachelor’s degree at four-year colleges and universities.
Escudero is an example of 406 semifinalists from among 1,500 applicants competing for the nation’s largest scholarship for transfer students from community colleges, according to the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation in Lansdowne, Virginia. Winners receive personal mentorship about selecting a transfer college and navigating financial aid, in addition to up to $40,000 per year for tuition and other expenses.
Among the semifinalists, 29% are international students, says Giuseppe “Seppy” Basili, foundation executive director. To be eligible, applicants must be both living and attending community college in the U.S. Winners will be announced in early May.
“The Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship is a highly selective scholarship for the nation’s top community college students seeking to complete their bachelor’s degrees at four-year colleges or universities,” Basili said. “The Foundation selects students that exhibit high academic ability and achievement, financial need, and qualities like persistence and leadership.”
Students often choose to start their higher education at community colleges because it is much less expensive than four-year schools, costing on average $10,000 per year compared with $25,000, according to Educationdata.org.
Community colleges are generally more flexible in scheduling, and for international students, some schools like LaGuardia do not require standardized test scores or English proficiency.
Community college students who transfer to four-year institutions have equal or higher graduation rates as students who enrolled directly from high school or those who transferred from other four-year institutions, according to a report by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. On average, they earn their degrees within two and a half years.
“The Cooke Foundation supports these students through the Undergraduate Transfer Program with the hopes that four-year institutions will see these students thrive and begin accepting a higher percentage of community college transfer students each year,” Basili said in an email.
The scholarship “might even allow me to pursue a double major,” Escudero said. “I’m really interested in chemistry, as well as my biology degree. And I could be more involved on the campus with that free time.”
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- By VOA News
Michigan State international students get their own space
Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, is setting aside a space in the International Center for international students.
Nidal Dajani, vice president of the school's International Student Association, said that the club plans to use the space to host events and hopes to collaborate with other student groups.
- By Dylan Ebs
International students find community during Pride Month
For LGBTQ+ international students, Pride Month, observed in June, is a unique time to reflect.
They hold on to multiple identities — both their LGBTQ+ identity and their cultural background — but coming to terms with them is not always easy.
For graduate student David Zhou, these identities can feel conflicting as transgender rights in China remain a controversial issue and spaces for LGBTQ people close. Zhou, 25, is transgender and pursuing an education in the STEM field at an urban university in the Midwestern United States.
VOA is using a pseudonym for Zhou’s first name and is not naming his university to protect his identity due to safety concerns back home in China. Zhou is not open about his transgender identity to his family.
During Pride Month, Zhou said he attended multiple LGBTQ+ events in his community and is surrounded by a supportive group of LGBTQ+ students who can relate to his experiences. But he’s not open about his identity to everyone on campus and said he doesn’t disclose his preferred pronouns to everyone to avoid transphobic comments.
“I feel like I have to make some judgments of the character of that person to see if they’re a good person to disclose [my identity] to,” Zhou said.
Zhou’s Pride Month celebrations included attending local markets with LGBTQ+ vendors and hanging out with his LGBTQ+ friends.
“They normalized being trans and for a long time I feel like trans identity is, should I say a vulnerability, brings me fear and worrying about discrimination, but having those events are helpful because it allowed me to see that queer people could just [live] openly,” he said.
At social events where few international students are present, Zhou said it can be tough to fit in.
“There's a lot of times like when they were talking about things I kind of, don't really understand, mostly because I kind of lack some background experience or knowledge,” he said.
Zhou said he is not aware of specific groups for LGBTQ+ international students at his university, but said international students are more prevalent in graduate programs and therefore find representation in organizations for LGBTQ+ graduate students.
In China, transgender individuals must obtain consent from an “immediate family member,” even for adults hoping to transition, which critics say limits the autonomy of transgender individuals while supporters say the policy protects doctors from violence by upset parents.
Struby Struble, a former coordinator of the University of Missouri LGBTQ+ Resource Center, told NAFSA: Association of International Educators in 2015 that LGBTQ+ international students face a “double barrier” on campus.
“With their international student friends, they feel isolated because they’re the LGBT one,” she said. “But then among the LGBT students on campus, they feel isolated because they’re the international one.”
Nick Martin, associate director of the Q Center, Binghamton University’s LGBTQ+ student support office, said when international students tour the center, there’s often a sense of hesitation as they enter a type of space that may not be present in their home country.
“I compare that to a year in after they've come into the space, they've again, maybe come to some of our events, they've got more connected,” he said.
Martin said graduate students have a unique interest in the Q Center as they may use the office for research and advocacy purposes that align with their studies.
“For older students, there may be hesitancy in a different way, but I think it's more in the vein of they want to do some of the advocacy work,” he said.
Martin said he thinks about how both his office and BU’s international student office can support students who come from countries with few — if any — protections for LGBTQ+ individuals.
“It's been a learning process of what those students really need, but I think I've kind of learned that a lot of students are just looking for the safe space that we offer,” Martin said.
- By VOA News
International students discuss US campus culture shock
International students at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, talked about culture shock in an article in La Voz News, the student newspaper.
"It felt like a major culture shock. Everything was so different, from academics to mannerism," said a student from Mexico.
Read the full story here.
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High tuition costs along with housing and food expenses can add up for students at U.S. colleges and universities.
MSNBC looked at the most expensive schools in the country, with one costing more than $500,000 for a bachelor’s degree. (June 2024)
Uzbekistan students admitted into top US universities
Students from Uzbekistan are among the international students admitted to top colleges and universities in recent years.
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