Success Stories
Third Lane student receives $30,000 Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship
Story by Joan Aschim
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| Jackie Bryson, career and employment advisor at Lane Community College, has helped three students in a row win the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship. She can be reached at brysonj@lanecc.edu or (541) 463-5164. |
Morgan Ironplow came to Lane Community College with a history of life on the streets. She leaves with two associate degrees and a $30,000 Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship.
Morgan is one of only 38 students nationwide from among 676 nominees to receive the prestigious award. She is the third student in a row at Lane to win the scholarship. Ephraim Payne won the award last year and went on to the University of Oregon. Lane’s first scholarship winner, Alex San Pedro, now studies at the Pratt Institute of Art in New York.
“As a teenager on the streets,” wrote Morgan, now age 27, “I started talking with other street kids. I was a very good listener and I often ended up showing them other ways to look at their situations. Most of them were runaways from regular homes. I showed them that life on the street wasn’t the romantic notion that they had built up in their heads. It was hard and unless they were being abused, they were better off going back home and dealing with chores and curfews.”
Morgan took to the streets for her own survival. “My childhood consisted of finding ways to not be hit, to be fed and to fully anticipate the moods of the adults around me.” She was suspicious of “people who lived in houses.”
Eventually, a woman smiled and said hello, and began dropping off sack lunches, and finally started leaving books. “I literally began to adore her but I was too frightened to talk with her.” Although Morgan never approached the woman, the experience encouraged her to start going to the library, “a wonderful way to stay off the streets.” A librarian saw her mouthing out words and brought over picture dictionaries. “I taught myself to read and practiced writing by copying out pages of books.”
As she got older, Morgan began questioning “why I was out there, when everyone else seemed to be inside.” With the help of the Eugene community, her life began to change. She got into Lane Community College after challenging the entrance exams. She made top grades and won her teachers’ respect for her intellectual curiosity and a natural aptitude for writing and expression. In June 2006, Morgan graduated with an associate of arts Oregon transfer degree and an associate of general studies degree.
She plans to enroll at Western Oregon University and study applied urban anthropology. As an urban anthropologist, she hopes to “take down the barriers that leave people feeling hopeless and to offer them an alternative of hope.”
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation transfer scholarship is one of the largest and most competitive awards available to undergraduates in America. The awards cover tuition, room and board, books, and other required fees for the remainder of the scholar’s bachelor’s degree, generally two or three years. “The scholarships not only allow promising community college students to pursue their academic dreams without financial barriers, but they also make a statement about the tremendous pool of talent transfer students from two-year institutions represent,” said Dr. George R. Boggs, president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges.
Community colleges continue to grow and now enroll 46 percent of all undergraduates in the United States, including the majority of low- to moderate-income students. Currently there are 6.6 million students who attend U.S. community colleges for credit.
For more information, contact Jackie Bryson, career and employment advisor at Lane Community College at brysonj@lanecc.edu or (541) 463-5164, or see www.jackkentcookefoundation.org
The next application deadline will be announced in October 2006.
