Skokie Student Named Semifinalist For Prestigious Scholarship

SKOKIE, IL — An Oakton Community College student is among the semifinalists for a prestigious full-ride scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.

Mayha Syed, a lifelong Skokie resident and Niles North High School graduate, is among 440 semifinalists chosen from more than 1,200 applicants across 180 community colleges for the Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship.

To be eligible, a student must have a grade point average of 3.5 or better, an unmet financial need and plans to transfer from a community college to a bachelor's degree program in the fall.

Second-year students applied in January, providing information about academic and extracurricular experiences and answering out several essay questions.

Syed, a first-generation college student, plans to attend either Lake Forest College of DePaul University in the fall and hopes to major in political science.

"I crafted my essays around that," Syed told Patch, "How I hope to go into public service and work to give back to the community, and how accessing higher education would open so many doors for me."

Currently an intern in the office of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Syed said she is interested in pursuing a career in public interest or immigration law.

Growing up in a village as diverse as Skokie, she said, had shaped her worldview and her given her a desire to give back to the community.

"Getting to interact with people from such a variety of backgrounds and experiences, I think that really had an impact on me and my view of the world," Syed said.

"I was exposed to so many different people, and I think it really helped shape me and my values," she added. "I think in Skokie we're a really tight-knit community, everyone is looking out for each other here, and we're very vocal about how everyone belongs in Skokie. So those values, I think, were embedded in me as a person who grew up here."

The scholarship covers the full cost of up to three years of study for students selected as finalists, who are set to be announced next month. While the number of finalists varies from year to year, there were 72 last year, according to the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.

Jack Kent Cooke (1912-1997) was a media magnate and owner of professional sports teams who bequeathed to his foundation assets worth an estimated $785 million at the time of his death, including the Washington Redskins football team, their new stadium and the Los Angeles Daily News.

Since 2000, the Landsdowne, Virginia-based foundation has awarded more than $230 million in scholarship to nearly 3,000 students ranging from 8th grader to post-graduates, according to its website. It has also provided nearly $120 million in grant to organizations that support students.

“The past year has been particularly difficult as students continued to navigate the complexities of hybrid learning, the demands of family care, and disrupted work schedules,” Seppy Basili, the foundation's executive director, said in a statement. “We are so proud of these semifinalists for their perseverance and achievements at their community colleges.”

Out of the 440 finalists, 42 of them are from colleges in Illinois. Syed is one of eight Illinois students attending schools outside of Chicago to be selected as a semifinalists for the scholarship.