WAUKESHA -- The student gracing the cover of the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha summer timetable, Lisa M. Ludwig, Waukesha, has been awarded a Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship for Community College Transfers. After being nominated by associate professor of history Jane Crisler, Waukesha, Ludwig underwent an extremely rigorous application process and was selected from a field of 700 for up to an annual $30,000 toward college costs as she completes her degree.
A single mother who earned a GED in 1994, Ludwig entered UW-Waukesha in fall 2001 and will have completed 59 credits by the end of summer. “I really like UW-Waukesha, and I love the professors,” she says. In fact, she would like to delay her transfer for a semester so she can take the fall UW-Waukesha courses for which she is registered. The Friends & Alumni Foundation has awarded her Altrusa Club and Murnan-Smith scholarships to help her with expenses this fall.
Ludwig plans to transfer to UW-Milwaukee and major in Indian philosophies and environmental ethics. She hopes to continue for graduate degrees after that.
This is the inaugural year for the Jack Kent Cooke undergraduate scholarship program. Previously the scholarships were only available to graduate students.
Cooke was a colorful character who never completed high school but was self-taught. He started as an encyclopedia salesman and went on to build a media empire, owning the Chrysler Building, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Washington Redskins. He collected antique autos, fine art, and racehorses. When he died, he left his fortune to establish the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. One of its major goals is to identify extraordinary individuals and help them pursue the kind of formal education he himself never had. |
