Cranford, NJ – UCNJ Union College of Union County, NJ graduate Mark Farag, of Elizabeth, has been selected for a prestigious 2024 Jack Kent Cooke Foundation (JKCF) Graduate Scholarship. Farag graduated from UCNJ in 2022 with an associate degree in engineering and transferred to the University of Michigan to complete his bachelor’s degree.
JKCF Graduate Scholars can be eligible for up to $150,000, with an annual cap of $75,000 per year to attend a full-time, accredited graduate program. Farag is one of only 117 JKCF Graduate Scholars. In 2022, he was selected as one of 100 community college students nationwide for the JKCF Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship which provided up to $55,000 per year for him to complete his baccalaureate degree.
While at UCNJ, Farag served as President of UCNJ’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa honor society and was a Union honors student. He was an ambassador for the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program at UCNJ while working. Farag is currently interning for SpaceX and is considering two master’s programs: an aerospace engineering program and a climate space program. After earning his master’s degree, his career goal is to become a project manager engineer in the aerospace.
“We are incredibly proud of Mark on this remarkable achievement. To receive not only the JKCF Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship but now to get the Graduate Scholarship as well is quite the feat. We know one of the biggest barriers to higher education can be finances and the financial support that the JKCF is providing is truly transformational. We look forward to monitoring and supporting his continued success,” stated UCNJ President Dr. Margaret M. McMenamin.
UCNJ is a public, comprehensive community college that provides quality, affordable, accessible educational programs to the greater Union County region. It is the first of New Jersey’s 18 two-year colleges, serving both career-minded and transfer-oriented students since 1933. The College offers a wide variety of academic and extracurricular activities. UCNJ provides many experiential learning opportunities such as access to a Bloomberg Business Center, Innovation Center, and Student Research hub. Additionally, students at UCNJ attend one of the top 20 community colleges in the country for 2025 as designated by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program. To learn more, visit catalog.euroins.net.
