The college application and scholarship season has opened for rising high school seniors.  In the Shiawassee region, the most prestigious recognition will go to the winner of the Bruce and Jacqueline Scholarship to the University of Michigan.  Established in 2006 by the most recent benefactors to the Cook Family Foundation, the four-year, full-tuition scholarship has launched several talented students on to impressive careers.

The first recipient of the Bruce and Jacqueline Scholarship, Kendra (Frye) Creighton, is now a veterinary surgeon practicing in Shiawassee County.  She graduated from Owosso High School in 2006, got an undergraduate degree in Ann Arbor and her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Michigan State University.

Valerie Micol, a 2010 graduate of Byron High School, recently received an appointment as a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan / Michigan Medicine.  With the support of the Bruce and Jacqueline Scholarship, she got her undergraduate and masters degree in Ann Arbor as well as her PhD in Clinical Psychology, all while raising a daughter.

Mitchell Lawrence, the 2016 winner and also a Byron graduate, was just accepted into a dual degree masters program in Architecture and Urban Planning at the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley.  Mitchell, after receiving a BS degree in Architecture from UM, worked as housing designer in San Francisco.  While an undergraduate at UM, Mitchell got a minor in Asian Languages and did an internship in Japan; he was also a residential advisor.

Other Bruce and Jacqueline Cook Scholars have earned medical degrees, become software developers, published research on genetics, served in the Peace Corps, and used their engineering degree to do product development for Fortune 500 companies.

The Cook Family Foundation is in the process of nominating high school seniors for this year’s Bruce and Jacqueline Cook Scholarship.  If you know one of the leaders and best from the greater Shiawassee region, please recommend them to us; contact Tom Cook or Yvette Collard.  Any high school senior from 10 area high school with a 3.5 GPA or higher is eligible for a scholarship from the Cook Family Foundation to any of the three campuses of the University of Michigan.  Learn more about the Shiawassee Advantage on our Scholarship Page.