Zain Blair-Roberts ’28 is among a select group of first-year college students across the country to be supported by a scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.
The foundation says the award goes to help students who have demonstrated exceptional academic ability, leadership, and persistence. The scholarship aims to help them attend top universities while avoiding student debt.
In addition to substantial financial support, Blair-Roberts and his fellow scholars also receive ongoing academic coaching and advising, graduate school and career advising, and an invaluable connection to a robust network of peers in the Cooke Scholar community.
“We extend a huge congratulations to the impressive new cohort of Cooke College Scholars,” says Seppy Basili, executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. “This year, we saw a record-breaking number of applications, and the remarkable achievements and resilience of these students have truly impressed us.”
Sixty new students were awarded scholarships by the foundation this year. A further fifty-eight, including Blair-Roberts, were already receiving support from the foundation under the Cooke Young Scholars Program, a selective five-year scholarship for exceptionally promising seventh grade students with financial need. Earlier this year, they were selected to continue receiving the foundation’s support as Cooke College Scholars.
Blair-Roberts, who graduated from McKinney High School in Texas, is interested in politics and nonprofits and hopes to pursue a double major in government and math, with a minor in Arabic. He says his experience with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has changed his life.
“The funding I received throughout high school not only helped me to engage in extracurricular activities such as piano and guitar lessons,” says Blair-Roberts, “but also provided me with a wealth of knowledge about the programs and resources that I had at my disposal. For example,” he adds, “without the foundation, I would not have been privy to the many fly-in programs offered by schools such as Bowdoin and would most likely not have had the opportunity to visit them multiple times before choosing where to apply. I am so grateful to have received both the Young Scholar and College Scholar awards and am so excited to continue my relationship with the foundation throughout my time at Bowdoin and beyond.”
“Meeting Zain during our Explore Bowdoin program was simply a delight, and it was certainly a thrill when we read his application,” says Senior Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Student Aid Claudia Marroquin. “Zain is a very academically bright student but, more importantly, he is curious and kind. We know that he will make a great impact at Bowdoin in the years to come and look forward to reading about his many successes in the future.”