JR Byers, a non-traditional adult student at MCC Longview, enrolled at the community college after being laid off from his job as a corporate trainer. Since then, Byers has taken full advantage of this educational opportunity and is not only president of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society at Longview, but on May 20, he will graduate with honors. JR has been granted admission to several Ivy League schools, with hopes of earning a degree in anthropology.
And those hopes are now more possible, at least with respect to finances associated with paying college tuition. This week, JR Byers was announced as one of 50 national recipients of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. The only winner from our area, Byers has been awarded a $30,000 annual scholarship that will now ensure the opportunity to transfer to the university of his choice to complete his bachelor's degree.
Byers is the third MCC Longview student to win this prestigious award.
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship seeks the nation’s top community college students and provides the annual funding for them to complete their bachelor’s degrees upon transferring to a four-year college or university. The award is the largest private scholarship in the country for two-year and community college transfer students, which unfortunately are far less readily available than funding for first-time college freshmen.
But this announcement does prove that although money for transfer and non-traditional students is often less accessible, it is still possible to secure scholarship dollars. And Byers demonstrates that despite the realities of job loss during a down economy, the thirst for knowledge and the desire for education knows no age.
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