LBCC Student Wins $60,000 Scholarship

Long Beach City College student Ahmad Lewis has been awarded the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship for up to $60,000.  The JKC foundation received 653 applications and selected only 46 students.  Every community college in the nation is allowed to nominate 2 students, and LBCC has been nominating students for 25 years.  Lewis is only the second student from LBCC to ever win the award.

Lewis has also been named this year’s LBCC valedictorian and is attending Stanford University in the Fall.

“The entire Long Beach City College family is proud of Ahmad Lewis,” said President Eloy Ortiz Oakley.  “His hard work and commitment to education is an inspiration not only to our students, but to the entire community.”

Each JKC award covers educational expenses, including tuition, living expenses, required fees, and books for the final two to three years of the baccalaureate degree.  This is the largest scholarship offered in the US to community college transfer students.

Lewis has maintained a 4.0 GPA at LBCC, has made the Dean’s List every semester while in school, was a member of the Alpha Gamma Sigma College Honor Society, and will be acknowledged as an Academic Senate and President’s Scholar honors student at graduation.

Lewis has also overcome adversity in his personal life.  He grew up in South Central Los Angeles and has volunteered as a teaching assistant at the Bethune Transitional Center for Homeless Students in Long Beach.  He has also mentored at-risk community college students and has taken a humanitarian aid trip to the African nation of Zimbabwe.

Here is an excerpt from his Jack Cooke Award application:

Every morning, as a student at Paul Revere Jr. High School, I would start my hour-long journey from my South Central home, staring out of the bus window, watching in amazement as my inner-city neighborhood disappeared, replaced by the suburban paradise of Brentwood. My initial reaction was “wow,” but soon the thrill was gone and the daily commute evoked a more philosophical response: “why?” Full of good questions but without answers, I began to spend hours studying. The statistics that I read suggested that African-Americans lagged far behind whites educationally and economically: those facts created a desire within me to become an agent of change.

Valuable life experiences have allowed me to become a better-rounded individual. For example, I was thirteen years old when I decided to become a rap star. Through hard work I landed my first recording contract at seventeen. The first song I released was a phenomenon. I became a full-fledged celebrity at nineteen and toured the world until I was twenty-one. However, I came to the conclusion that my purpose was not to rap about materialism and such, but to teach while I entertain. I dissolved my record contract, got a 9-5 job, and started a positive hip-hop band.  I quickly fell in love and married one of my background singers.  We have a son who has been able to see some of the most amazing countries before the age of three, while touring with his parents.

Now, I am a full-time student, who works a part-time job. I used to make $15,000 a month, and now earn $15 an hour. I am most proud of the fact that my wife and I have persevered through all of the ups and the downs. We are raising our 3 year-old to be a good person, and I look forward to explaining to him why I stopped, took a bow, and left the stage during my fifteen minutes of fame.

After a twelve-year hiatus from school I returned, determined to succeed.  My personal and intellectual growth, since enrolling at LBCC, has served to strengthen my resolve to serve, to teach, and to advocate on behalf of the most disadvantaged in our society. A scholarship will help provide me with the foundation necessary to build steadily upward toward the achievement of my educational goals. I thank you for your consideration.