Bergen Community College: Bergen Class Of '24 Grad Gets $55,000 Scholarship

Press release from Bergen Community College:

May 21, 2024

Santana, of Bogota, majored in political science and aspires to become an attorney. He will attend Williams College this fall.

At Bergen, Santana served as co-president of the Bergen Honors Association for the Judith K. Winn School of Honors. As a peer writing tutor and academic coach at the College’s Cerullo Learning Assistance Center, he earned the College Reading and Learning Association’s 2023 Rick Sheets Outstanding Tutor Award, making him the top tutor from more than 1,200 accredited tutoring programs across the country. Santana tutored students at all levels of writing, psychology, and criminal justice. He also trained writing center tutors at Teaneck High School and has assisted with facilitating in-class tutoring and academic coaching presentations.

In his hometown, Santana founded Bogota Helping Hands to increase teen involvement in local community affairs. For his efforts, he received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for academic excellence and community involvement in Bergen County. He also participated in a two-month internship in the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and has interned in the legal field since high school.

Bergen’s Alpha Epsilon Phi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society of two-year colleges, assists in connecting students with scholarships such as the Jack Kent Cooke award. Twenty-two Bergen students have received the award during the last 11 years.

Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 13,000 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.

This press release was produced by Bergen Community College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.