Georgia State University’s Perimeter College ranks fifth in the nation this year for the number of semifinalists named for the national Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. The 12 Perimeter College semifinalists represent the majority of semifinalists from Georgia, and their number sets a record for the college. The Jack Kent Cooke selection committee chose 456 semifinalists from nearly 1,500 applicants attending 311 community colleges. We are featuring each of Perimeter’s semifinalists in articles on our News Hub. Below, we introduce you to one of them.
By Rebecca Rakoczy
Photo by Bill Roa
CLARKSTON, Ga. — Drew Wensel has always been interested in human anatomy and medicine.
But for most of his young life, the possibility of going to medical school seemed to be a long shot.
Now the Georgia State University Perimeter College student sees a brighter future — and the possibility of attending med school one day.
He’s one of the college’s 12 semifinalists for the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, which awards recipients up to $40,000 a year for three years to complete their undergraduate degrees.
Wensel, an Honors College student who is studying biology, said it is gratifying to work hard and move closer to his goal. But that wasn’t always the case, he said.
“I grew up not expecting to go to college,” he said.
His parents did not attend college, and for a great deal of his youth, their religious beliefs discouraged the idea of becoming a part of the medical community, he said.
Financially independent and on his own at 18, Wensel started college, but didn’t do well.
“I didn’t grow up with role models in college,” he said. “When I got there, it was overwhelming.”
He dropped out after his first semester. He began working in the restaurant industry, making a living as a waiter. But his dream to become a doctor stayed with him.
“I didn’t feel fulfilled in the restaurant industry,” he said.
When he was 25, he decided to explore the idea of going back to school.
He saw the success of his best friend, Colton Smith, another “nontraditional” student who came to Perimeter College to study biology and now is on his way to fulfilling his dream to become a pediatrician. Smith was the 2017 recipient of the national Jack Kent Cooke scholarship.
“In Colton, I realized what was possible because of his hard work,” Wensel said. “He inspired me, and I jumped back in.”
Wensel started at Perimeter College in 2017.
He has completed most of his pre-med courses and has been involved as secretary of Clarkston’s History and Politics Club, president of Phi Theta Kappa and an active volunteer with GSU Cares and the Panther Pantry. He hopes to transition to Georgia State’s Atlanta Campus this summer to continue to study biology, but he dreams of attending Harvard or Columbia if chosen for the JKC scholarship.
“This has been an awesome experience for me,” he said. “The atmosphere (at Perimeter) makes me feel at home and exposed to thinking I wouldn’t have had before. This experience has been eye-opening to me and let me have a greater sense of my potential. I am proud of myself — as the first in my family to go to college,” he said.
Wensel also has inspired his professors.
“In Drew Wensel, what you see and hear is a quietly thoughtful person,” said Bob King, Wensel’s Perimeter political science professor. “What you get, if you are lucky enough to know him, is persistent and focused excellence. He’s someone with a sustained focus on the here-and-now in service to the future.”