Wright College is Home to Six Jack Kent Cooke Semifinalists

By: Kyle Chmielowski

The Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship is a highly selective scholarship for community college students seeking to continue their education. 

It is a last-dollar funding scholarship, after all financial aid, that provides as much as $55,000 per year for two to three years to complete a bachelor's degree. 

Out of 467 semifinalists nationwide, 20 are from City Colleges of Chicago, and six are Wright students: Hugo Correa, Valerie Dutan Molina, Michael Kattner, Osmar Mora, Erum Khan, and Mubashir Aleem. The recipients will be announced in May. 

Wright Times News interviewed four nominees: Hugo Correa, Valerie Dutan Molina, Michael Kattner, and Osmar Mora. Erum Khan and Mubashir Aleem were unavailable for comment.

A banner in the campus center displays the names of the JKC semifinalists. Photo Credit: Kyle Chmielowski.

Hugo Correa, 19, an electrical engineering major, is “very grateful for the wonderful opportunity to be chosen as a semifinalist”.  

He believes his essay stood out in the application process. He worked on it for weeks with the help of the founder and advisor of the College of Engineering at Wright. Additionally, his letter of recommendation was from Dr. Stanislaw Buchcic, a math professor. 

Correa’s first job was helping in a mechanic shop at age 10, where he looked at mechanisms/contraptions and wondered how they worked. 

Additionally, he learned resilience, hard work, and the importance of education. His proudest accomplishment is staying in school, viewing it as a long and challenging journey worth pushing through.

His early interests included arts and crafts, as well as coding. Initially, he wanted to be a wrestler, but was influenced by engineering, inspired by his father's mechanic work.

Valerie Dutan Molina, 19, studying neuroscience, had to overcome adversity, with her mother’s illness during the time she was supposed to be applying to college and scholarships. 

A friend told Molina about the Star Scholarship, and she researched its wonderful opportunities. “I felt content but a little scared because I hadn’t come to Wright, I didn't know about the environment, if I was gonna make friends,” Molina explained. 

Her community service dedication shines, as she conducted research work in redlining neighborhoods for portable air filters. She is very involved at Wright College, where she is Vice President of PTK and an SGA senator. 

Advisor ​Luis Mendez informed her about the scholarship and helped her along the journey. She has been accepted to UIC and Rush University, she is patiently waiting to hear back from Northwestern and Princeton. She is working towards becoming a physician. 

Michael Kattner, 21, an alumna of DePaul College Prep, where he received the math department award for his commitment and dedication to his studies.

Kattner said, “It was very obvious that I loved the subject a lot and I was curious about it beyond the high school level.”

He is passionate about assisting the wrestling team’s coach at his high school. The wrestling team became his "rock" throughout high school, providing him with support and a sense of belonging.

During his senior year, Kattner was diagnosed with autism, ADHD, and dyslexia. This caused a struggle towards standardized testing and accommodating the high school routine.  

    Kattner said that he prospered better in a college setting because “having more freedom made it easier to accommodate.”

    Kattner plans on attending the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, to continue his education. He hopes to receive a math degree in a dual program that will allow him to attend graduate school. 

Osmar Mora, 21, is a former student at Wright majoring in early education and hopes to become an elementary school teacher. He says his passion started when he began teaching at his wrestling program at Rickover Naval Academy.

“Not every child is the same, and that’s something I needed to learn while being a wrestling teacher,” he said. Mora is an assistant coach at his old high school, yet he maintained a 3.5 GPA while balancing school and work. 

Each student put immense dedication into their application to be spotlighted as a semifinalist. They each took advantage of resources at Wright College, which made them a unique applicant.