July 20, 2019 Washtenaw Community College
There’s a saying you’ll see and hear frequently around Washtenaw Community College:
“Start Here, Transfer Anywhere.”
With nearly 65% of students planning to transfer to a four-year college or university, WCC established a University Transfer Center to help guide them through the process. The end result is earning an associate degree, completing a large percentage of university prerequisites, and saving thousands of dollars on the way to a bachelor’s degree.
WCC is full of high-achieving students with lofty academic goals who make the smart financial decision to start their higher education journey at a community college. Let’s introduce you to a couple of the elite members of our Class of 2020:
Ali Kurmasha is among just 50 community college students from across the country to win a highly-competitive Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship that provides him with up to $40,000 per year toward the completion of his bachelor’s degree.
He is the third student in as many years to win the scholarship since 2018.
The Ann Arbor resident plans to take his Liberal Arts Transfer degree from WCC to
Michigan State University, where he’ll study chemistry or biology. From there, he
plans to apply to the University of Michigan School of Dentistry.
“I chose dentistry because of my love for science and arts. I believe that dentistry is a perfect marriage of both,” he said. “I would also like to use my career as a way to help unite people and offer those who cannot afford dental care the chance to smile.”
Winning the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship made Kurmasha a bit of a local celebrity. During an appearance on CTN, the Ann Arbor public access television network, he talked about the benefits of attending WCC.
“You get the same credits that you would get at a university for a lower price,” he said. “And sometimes you get them even better at a community college because it has smaller class sizes and the faculty are very friendly and approachable. It’s just amazing how community colleges are underestimated, but they are pretty amazing in what they do.”
After graduating from WCC with a Pre-Engineering Science Transfer degree in May, Emilee Seghi had a couple items on her summer to-do list before enrolling in the University of Michigan School of Engineering to study Aerospace Engineering. She signed up for a WCC class to learn Python, a computer programming language, so she could develop her own app that would assist with another interest —learning different languages.
The app was put on hold when Seghi was one of 273 community college students from around the country selected to participate in the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholar program. Beginning in late May, she started working through a five-week online course that could lead to her being selected to participate in an all-expense-paid, four-day experience at a NASA center.
“I couldn’t really think of a better way to spend my summer,” said Seghi, who graduated from WCC with a perfect 4.0 GPA. “I hope to gain more connections with other community college students interested in this kind of opportunity and I’m excited to learn more about the engineering process.”
For Seghi, the opportunity to participate in the NASA program is one last reason why starting her academic pursuits at WCC was the right decision.
“Coming to WCC before going to U-M was the best thing I could have done for my education and my personal development,” Seghi said.