Achiever Stories

Cochise Student Gets Cooke Scholarship. 

May grad is only Cooke scholar in Arizona

A Cochise College academic stand-out is the only community college student in Arizona to receive the prestigious Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.

Heather Morrison, a high honors student at the Douglas Campus, is one of only 25 students in the nation to receive the scholarship, which provides up to $30,000 per year to students attending or graduating from two-year institutions.

Morrison was nominated for the scholarship by Mary Beth Sutor, a counselor on the Douglas Campus. Earlier this year, Morrison was named to the All-Arizona First Team, which consists of the top 22 community college students in the state and which earned her a tuition waiver to complete her bachelor’s degree at any public university in Arizona. Morrison graduates from Cochise May 13 and plans to transfer to Northern Arizona University, where she will study physics. Her goal is to become a professor.

“We are all so proud of, and pleased for, Heather,” says Dr. Karen Nicodemus, Cochise College president. “She truly represents so many of our students – those returning to education with great potential and needing only the opportunity to succeed. We are also very pleased with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and its support for the transfer student. In doing so, they are acknowledging the important work of the community college.”

This year’s Undergraduate Transfer Scholars come from 18 states and were selected from 791 nominees. Their scholarships can be used to support tuition, room and board, books, and other fees for the remainder of their bachelor’s degree. According to Matthew Quinn, executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, the scholarships were created and first awarded in 2002 to “make sure financial obstacles do not prevent high-achieving community college students from advancing their education and pursuing their dreams.”

Morrison has maintained a 4.0 grade point average at Cochise, where she is a member of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year college students. Her name appears on the National Dean’s List. She wrote for “The Mirage,” the college’s literary magazine, performed with the Dance Matrix Company, and received the Art Entrée Foundation award for a sketchbook she created. At an awards ceremony in April, she was named the Douglas Campus Sophomore of the Year.

But getting to such a stage required perseverance and tough choices. After years of trying unsuccessfully to help her relatives overcome addictions and alcoholism, Morrison decided the best way she could help her loved ones was to help herself. She moved from North Carolina to Arizona, divorced her alcoholic husband, and started life over with her sons at Bisbee’s Women’s Transition Project (WTP), a transitional shelter for women in her adopted state.

At the WTP, Morrison took part in the Southwest Skies Truly Unlimited project; WTP residents made chairs, which they sold at the Belleza Art Gallery. The gallery was run by WTP residents and included work by regional artists who donated a portion of their proceeds to WTP. The experience allowed her to obtain a new perspective on poverty and homelessness, serve as an example for other residents, and regain the self-esteem to enroll at Cochise College.

“I chose to attend a community college because it gave me the emotional, academic and financial support that I needed to re-enter college and turn my life around,” Morrison says. “My instructors not only had time to spend with me on my schoolwork, but they were able to get to know me as a person, and to be there for me when life got rough. They stepped in to replace the family that I did not have.”

Morrison also is a member of the AvanZando program, a federally funded Trio program at Cochise College that is open to first-generation, low-income and disabled students. The program provides academic excellence seminars, advising and counseling services, workshops, textbooks, tutoring and mentoring, access to cultural activities, scholarships, and access to additional financial aid.

“I am proud of the success that I am making of my life,” Morrison says. “I am proud that I have been able to move out of the shelter, enroll as a full-time college student, and assure a brighter future for my family. However, I am even more proud of the fact that I serve as an example to others who struggle with poverty.”

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Read about other achievers Blanca Escobar, Christopher Harrison, Wendy Sanchez, Hazel Amina, Sunshine Lawson, Jennifer Dyke, Laura Ochoa, and Michael Christiansen.

If you have a story about a participant or staff achiever, send it to Dave Ferguson. The person does not have to be nominated for the WESTOP Achievers Award. He or she is a person, in your eyes, whose story is inspirational. Afterall, if we don't tell the stories of our participants and staff, who will?

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