Trung Quach and Matthew Tate have become the 11th and 12th Georgia Perimeter College students to receive the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Scholarship since the program was initiated in 2002.

Quach, 21, is a native of Vietnam and attends GPC’s Clarkston Campus, where he’s majoring in biology. Tate, 22, is a science major who lives in Monroe and attends GPC’s Newton Campus.

As the source of the largest private scholarships for two-year community college transfer students in the country, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation provides up to $30,000 a year for up to three years—per student. Recipients are among the nation’s top low-income community college students seeking to complete a bachelor’s degree at an accredited college or university. Quach and Tate are two of 85 scholars in the country who received the award in 2014.

Scholars were selected based on high academic ability and achievements, persistence, leadership and financial need.

Quach, who has a 4.0 GPA, will graduate from GPC in May with an associate degree in biological sciences . He already has been accepted to Georgia Tech, where he plans to major in biochemistry. (Read Quach's story.)

Tate has a 3.8 GPA and is currently taking classes in differential equations and chemistry. He plans to major in electrical engineering and has applied to Georgia Tech. (Read Tate's story.)

As an international student, Quach will have to pay out-of-state tuition at Georgia Tech. The JKC scholarship will help him continue to pay for college, he says. “My mom and dad were so happy and proud of me. They said I made the whole family proud, “he says. 

Tate, who is a newlywed, is financing his own education at GPC through his job, Georgia’s HOPE scholarship and Pell grants. “I had a lot of people praying for me,” Tate says. “I doubt more college would be possible without this scholarship.”

“The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has long been committed to helping outstanding community college students transfer to and succeed at the nation’s top colleges and universities,” says Emily Froimson, vice president of programs at the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. “Since the program started in 2002, the foundation has supported 643 community college students directly and thousands more through the foundation’s grant-making initiatives.”