Theranda Jashari.
PARAMUS, N.J. – The fifth Bergen Community College student in three years has earned a share of the nation’s largest private scholarship for transfer students.
Theranda Jashari, of Garfield, will receive up to $40,000 a year to complete a bachelor’s degree at a four-year college or university as a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship recipient. As a Cooke scholar, Jashari can receive up to $50,000 for up to four years of graduate school as well. Only 75 U.S. community college students earned the 2016 scholarship.
“Community Colleges remain focused on helping students achieve success,” Bergen President B. Kaye Walter, Ph.D., said. “Students like Theranda Jashari exemplify these efforts. We are incredibly proud of her, who now joins the College’s illustrious history of Jack Kent Cooke scholars.”
The award caps a successful two-year tenure at Bergen for Jashari, who began at the institution in 2013 shortly after emigrating from the Republic of Kosovo. In just the last nine months, Jashari ranked among only 100 U.S. students to receive the 2015 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholar award and earned a spot on the all-state academic team sponsored by Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society of two-year colleges, the Coca-Cola Foundation and the New Jersey Education Association. Jashari graduated from Bergen as part of class of 2016 May 19. She expects to attend Rutgers University this fall to pursue a degree in bio-technology.
Previous Bergen Cooke scholars include 2015 valedictorian Mariia Alibekova, 2014 valedictorian Maria De Abreu Pineda, Natasha Pineiros and Ana Parra Vera.
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, a private, independent foundation that supports high achieving students with financial need, has awarded $147 million in scholarships and $90 million in grants since 2000.
Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls 15,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.
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