Bucknell psychology major wins $150,000 Jack Kent Cooke scholarship

Marie Victoire Alexis ’26 has won a $150,000 Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholarship, a national prize that could help carry the Bucknell psychology major into graduate school without the debt load that often blocks first-generation students.

The award can provide up to $150,000 over four years, with an annual cap of $75,000, for full-time graduate study in in-person or hybrid programs at accredited, not-for-profit institutions. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation says it is last-dollar funding, meaning it does not replace institutional aid, and is meant for scholars with strong achievement, leadership, engagement and unmet financial need.

Alexis came to Bucknell from Lehigh Carbon Community College as a junior through the university’s Community College Scholars Program, a route that includes a six-week summer residential experience and full-tuition scholarship support for transfer students. HACC’s program page says Bucknell looks for applicants with at least a 3.5 GPA, 12 transferable credits and household-income limits of $95,000 for families, $45,000 for independent students and $60,000 for married couples.

For Bucknell, her win is also a signal about the reach of the school’s student support system. Alexis credited the university’s Center for Access & Success and multiple mentors with helping her navigate college, while Bucknell says the center provides relationship-based mentoring across its pathway scholarship programs.

Her goal to become a counselor grew out of experiences in Haiti and the United States, and from meeting a psychologist as a teenager who helped shape her understanding of mental health care. At Bucknell, that interest became practical work in Lewisburg: Alexis completed an eight-week internship with Transitions of PA, then kept volunteering there after the internship ended.

Transitions of PA serves Union, Snyder and Northumberland counties and says it is a 501(c)(3) crisis center founded in 1981 to provide advocacy, empowerment and education for victims and survivors. The organization also operates a 24/7 crisis hotline. The work carries added local weight as Transitions moves ahead with plans for a new sexual assault support facility at 322 JPM Road in Lewisburg on 2.88 acres donated by WellSpan Evangelical Community Hospital, a project officials have said could take about three years to complete.

Alexis said, “Working at Transitions made me feel certain that I want to do that type of work for the rest of my life.” She also said the Cooke Foundation has “not only helped me financially, but they have guided and mentored me throughout my college career.”

For Union County, the award ties together Bucknell, a Lewisburg nonprofit and a student who turned community-college access into a national graduate-school opportunity. It also underscores Bucknell’s ability to produce scholars competitive enough for one of the country’s most selective graduate awards.