LCC student named semifinalist for prestigious Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship

Lenoir Community College student Mackenzie Rouse has been selected as a semifinalist for the prestigious Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. 

A 2020 graduate of South Lenoir High School, Rouse is enrolled in the Associate in Arts in Teacher Preparation (AATP) and plans to transfer to East Carolina University this fall to complete her degree and become a high school English teacher. 

Rouse is one 440 semifinalists chosen from a pool of more than 1,200 applicants attending 180 community colleges in 25 states. She is one of four selected in North Carolina.

The Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship recipients will be announced by early May. Cooke Transfer Scholars are selected based on their exceptional academic ability and achievement, financial need, persistence, service, and leadership. 

Through this award, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation supports high-achieving community college students with financial need seeking to complete their bachelor’s degrees at selective four-year institutions.

Rouse said when she found out she was a semifinalist, she was “truly astounded. I lived with my grandpa for most of my life, so my parent were not teachers or people that everyone knew so I was truly shocked whenever I found out that I was a semifinalist. I am amazed that a “normal” person like me was even considered for such a pristine award.”

An LCC Guarantee Scholarship recipient, she also received the Remarkable Futures Leadership Scholarship from Chick-fil-a when she worked there in 2020. Rouse said she decided to go to LCC because her counselors at South Lenoir High School advised her to apply, due to the caliber of the education and the affordability of the program. “They also informed me of the possible scholarships, such as the LCC Guarantee, which was a tremendous factor in me applying.”

Rouse said for most of her life, beginning when she was a young child, she had made up her mind that she wanted to be a teacher. “I used to ‘teach’ my friends and stuffed animals. Whenever I was in high school, however, I thought that I either wanted to be a high school teacher or pediatric nurse,” she said.

“I took all the Health Science courses, where I realized that this was not what I wanted to do, and I went back to my childhood aspiration,” she said. “I wanted to be a teacher, firstly, because of the wonderful teachers that I have had the privilege of having throughout my childhood and on up to graduation,” she said.

Rouse said that she would encourage others to pursue their dreams regardless of their family circumstances. “I knew that I wanted to make a difference helping children and this is the way I feel called to make a difference in children’s lives. I hope to be the teacher that they have where they know that they are loved and wanted while they are in my class, if they learn nothing else, because not every student has this at home.”