Scholarship Frontrunner Reaches Back to Help Others Excel

Eight students from Georgia State University’s Perimeter College have been named semifinalists for the 2024 Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. The Jack Kent Cooke award is a competitive scholarship for the nation’s top two-year college students. It provides recipients with up to $55,000 per year, placing the scholarship among the largest private awards in the country for community college transfer students. The semifinalists, all Perimeter Honors College students working toward their associate degrees, are among 459 individuals selected from more than 1,600 applicants attending 194 community colleges in 37 states, plus Washington, DC, and the Northern Mariana Islands The following is one of the student profiles.

CLARKSTON, Ga.—Sofia Saavedra Bonilla is having a moment. The Colombian-born native is on track to becoming the first in her family to earn a college degree. She’s also buoyed by her selection as a 2024 semifinalist for the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship.

“It’s mind blowing,” she said of being a Cooke scholarship frontrunner.

Inspired by her own successes, the 22-year-old  engineering student is hoping to pave the way for an impoverished community of children in her native country to follow suit.

Last year, Saavedra launched a virtual English STEM learning program for a group of low-income 3^rd and 4^th graders in Fosca, a town in Colombia’s Eastern Province where her mother grew up.

“I share the importance of learning a second language from an early age and encourage the school staff to implement more of these programs which also targets their performance on the English section of Las Pruebas Saber Pro, which is the standardized test used for college entrance in Colombia, where it’s very expensive to learn English,” she explained.

Saavedra moved to the United States from Bogota with her mother, a single parent, when she was 14. She graduated from metro Atlanta’s Milton High School in 2020—although she couldn’t start college right away, because her mom had lost her job during the pandemic and Saavedra began working full-time to help pay bills.

At Perimeter, Saavedra has excelled in and outside the classroom, challenging herself with Honors College courses, traveling to attend last year’s Society of Women Engineers conference in Los Angeles and participating in research presentations.

She credits her teachers, especially professors Mathes Dayananda, Stephanie Garofalo and Michael Nelson, Jr., for helping her succeed. Saavedra adds that she feels fortunate that she’s able to attend college.

“I’ve always been passionate about math and science; and I knew that once I got here to the U.S., I’d take full advantage of my education,” she said.

Saavedra’s interest in engineering is partly inspired by her mom’s past work as a receptionist at a medical office for cancer patients. She recalled her mother sharing stories about the patients and wishing that she could do something to help them. As a future chemical engineer, Saavedra wants to research and develop drugs to slow the spread of diseases like cancer.

After graduating from Perimeter College later this year, she plans to attend either Georgia Tech or Northwestern University to study chemical engineering.

“I want to use my time to contribute and make positive changes in this world,” she said.

The Cooke Foundation will announce its 2024 winners later this spring.

Story by Kysa Anderson Daniels

Photo by Bill Roa