Two students from Orange Coast College have been selected as semifinalists for the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship.
OCC students who were named as semifinalists are Parsa Bashiri and Cher Scarlett.
Bashiri is a premedical student preparing to transfer for fall 2026 to study biomedical engineering. She is a member of the Mu Delta Rho pre-health professions honor society and the OCC Honors Program. She will present research mentored by Dr. Erin Gratz at the upcoming Giles Brown Symposium.
Scarlett is an astrophysics major who will earn degrees in astronomy, physics, mathematics, liberal arts and natural science from OCC this spring. She is a member of Alpha Gamma Sigma, Phi Theta Kappa and the OCC Honors Program. She has presented her research at several conferences including the Honors Transfer Council of California Student Research Conference and the Giles Brown Symposium at OCC.
The OCC students are two out of 115 California nominees and 485 national students selected as semifinalists for the 2026 Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. In 2025, three OCC students were chosen as semifinalists, and one OCC student won the national Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship in 2024.
"We are extremely proud of our student scholars' academic achievement," says OCC President Angelica Suarez. "OCC has a proven record of being a transfer leader, and we are excited to learn about their future transfer plans."
The Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship is a prestigious national award that supports high-achieving community college students as they transfer to top four-year institutions to complete their bachelor's degrees. Semifinalists are chosen from a pool of nearly 1,300 applications attending 224 community colleges in 37 states.
The finalists for the Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship will be announced in May. Each selected scholar will receive financial support for up to three years, college planning services, ongoing advising, and the opportunity to connect with a community of fellow Cooke Scholars.
