October 18, 2002: Volume 56, Number 6

Stephanie Block named Jack Kent Cooke Scholar

For as long as she can recall, Stephanie Block has been interested in the intersection of psychology and law.

That interest came into sharper focus last spring when she did an internship as a victim's advocate for the Rensselaer County District Attorney's Office.

And it helped the senior psychology major and French minor win a scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to support her senior year at Union. The award is based on overall excellence in academics, leadership and service. She is one of 79 students nationwide to receive up to $30,000 annually toward the remainder of their undergraduate education.

Block, from River Edge, N.J., said she is considering Ph.D. programs in psychology, and eventually law school.

"Therapy works toward improving the welfare of a single individual," she said. "But only through the law can we ultimately change society in ways that benefit large numbers of our fellow human beings."

Block was a founder and coordinator of the College's chapter of ROAR (Reach Out and Read, through the Hillel chapter), a Big Sister since freshman year to a local 9-year-old girl, and a counselor at a sleep-away camp for children with AIDS (Camp Compass in Highlands, N.Y.).

She is president of Psi Chi, the psychology honor society; captain of the Union College Dance Team; philanthropy chair for the Delta Delta Delta sorority; student representative at Union's Leadership conference; and an Ambassador and former Gatekeeper with the Admissions Office.

She did a two-term independent study on eating disorders with Prof. Thomas Rieg, and presented the results at the Steinmetz Symposium and a meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association in Boston.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is receiving more than $500 million in assets from the estate of Jack Kent Cooke, who built a media empire and also owned the Los Angeles Lakers and Washington Redskins. Cooke, whose dream to go to college ended when he had to leave school to find work during the Depression, died in 1997.

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