UHP Alumna Wins Major National Graduate Scholarship
A University of Idaho alumna ('04) from Meridian is again among an elite group of students selected in a national competition to receive a major scholarship. Jessica M. Lipschultz has been selected to receive the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship to support her studies at Stanford University. She is one of 76 scholars chosen from a field of nearly 1300 candidates who were nominated for the competition by colleges and universities in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

First named one of 40 Jack Kent Cooke Scholars in 2002 through the nationally competitive Undergraduate Scholarship Program, Lipschultz initially engaged in community service activities because her parents said helping others was the right thing to do. She worked with senior citizens in respite homes, homeless families moving from shelter to shelter, and émigré children struggling to learn English. She structured internships and paid jobs to learn more, including three months working with advocates in Washington seeking changes in the No Child Left Behind law.

"I made one of the best decisions of my life when I chose to attend the University of Idaho," she said. "At UI, I became aware of the complexities of our world. I started to discover how I could become a positive force in it. I learned that academic success is not marked by grades, awards or even scholarships but, rather, by a passion for one's discipline and a commitment to applying knowledge to help others."

Enrolling in AmeriCorps following her graduation from the University of Idaho, Lipschultz discovered how she wanted to apply this commitment to service in her career. Charged with creating educational programs for homeless young women who were pregnant or parenting, she developed a curriculum “that encourages and enables them to pursue their interests and acquire the knowledge and skills needed in order to be successful.” “Nothing,” Lipschultz learned, “is more invigorating than helping a person begin to dream again. The most important service I can give my future students is to empower them to confront the world with a critical mind, confidence, and passion.”

Lipschultz, daughter of Lawrence and Carol Lipschultz, completed a UI undergraduate degree in English and American studies with a perfect academic record; she completed curricular requirements to earn the University Honors Program Certificate; she received the Lindley Award as the outstanding senior in the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences, and the Leishmann Award as the outstanding senior in the Department of English. She was a member of the Honors Student Advisory Board, served as the first chair of the Associated Students of the University of Idaho's Civic Engagement Committee, was president of Alpha Phi Omega Service Organization, and was the National Society of Collegiate Scholars' vice president of community service. Lipschultz also has served as a page in the United States Senate.

Stephan Flores, director of the University Honors Program and the UI's institutional representative for the Cooke Scholarships, said that the graduate award affirms "Jessica's expressed support of her education at the UI and the Cooke Foundation's recognition of her outstanding service and exceptional potential for contributions as a high school English teacher, writer, and community leader. In view of her recent studies in peace and conflict resolution and internship work in Washington, D.C. and in Northern Ireland, and her mentoring service to at-risk youth through the AmeriCorps Program, it is clear that Jessica Lipschultz remains dedicated to the profession of teaching and to advocacy as a teacher to improve the living conditions of others in the U.S. and around the world."

The Cooke Foundation's mission is to help young people of exceptional promise reach their full potential through education. One of the largest and most competitive scholarships offered in the U.S., the amount of each graduate award varies by student based on the cost of attendance and the length of the graduate program as well as other scholarships or grants received. The maximum available per student is $50,000 per year for up to six years.

Jessica Lipschultz began her graduate studies at Stanford University in summer 2005. She is studying educational teaching strategies as well as literature and composition, and plans to learn how best to empower students - and to transform public schools and larger political communities.

Press release and narrative account of Jessica Lipschultz's 2002 Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Scholar Award