Brown Alums Win Jack Kent Cooke Scholarships

Former undergraduates, Marleny Franco ’03 and Nathan Stumpff ’02, are among 76 new Jack Kent Cooke Scholars chosen from a pool of 1,250 individuals, nominated by 600 colleges and universities. Each scholar will receive up to $300,000 over five years, based on academic ability, unmet financial need, leadership and other qualifications and achievements.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation began awarding graduate and professional scholarships nationally in 2004. Brown is the only academic institution to have had both of its nominees named recipients each year. In 2004, Omar Haque ’02 and Emily Egan ‘02 were awarded scholarships.

Franco, of Boston, plans to attend Case School of Medicine. A former community health concentrator at wn, Franco conducted a senior project that explored HIV risk-reducing strategies employed by incarcerated Latinas. She also worked as a research assistant at Rhode Island Hospital, studying the cultural factors affecting asthma management in urban children.

Franco’s career goal is to practice pediatric medicine, particularly within Latino communities. She also seeks to conduct research to decrease health disparities in minority populations.

“I am looking forward to the day when, as a physician, I can give back to disadvantaged immigrant communities, like the one I came from,” she said.

Stumpff, of Liberty Me., plans to attend the Manhattan School of Music to continue his training as a composer. While at Brown, Stumpff participated in the Young Composers Program at Tanglewood and studied music as a Fulbright Scholar in Iceland.

According to Professor of Music Gerald Shapiro, Stumpff is “the single most promising composition student that I have worked with in my 37 years of university teaching.”

Stumpff plans to create music that “intimately connects performers to the community, especially to young people.” He hopes to build “a meeting ground of musicians, poets, and fools of all persuasions…a place where creativity and collaboration can flourish,” on a farm in his native New England.

See our complete list of Recent Winners.