Posted on October 21, 2002 at 12:57 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) junior Jared B. Parker, 20, of Florala recently became the only Alabama student to be named among the first Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Scholars. Parker is a chemistry major in the UAB School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

Almost 700 students from 400 schools in 37 states and Washington, D.C., were nominated for the 79 available scholarships. Parker was awarded $9,400. Universities that also had winning students include Yale, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Rice, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mount Holyoke, Georgetown and George Washington.

Parker is a 2000 graduate of Florala High School. He is the son of Jeanne Lewis of Florala and the late David Baker, who was a resident of Highland Home. In addition to the Cooke scholarship, he is one of only two annual recipients of the highly competitive UAB Biochemistry/Biotechnology Fellowship. The award was presented to him as an entering first-year student based upon his high school academic record and his potential to excel in research in these areas. He recently received the Golden Key International Society Outstanding Sophomore of the Year Award. After graduation from UAB, Parker plans to attend medical school and return to his hometown as a general practitioner.

He was nominated for the Cooke scholarship by UAB Professor of Chemistry Donald D. Muccio, Ph.D., and Larry K. Krannich, professor and chairman of the department. Parker is a research assistant in Muccio’s protein kinetics laboratory. His research is part of a major anti-bacterial drug design project.

This is the first year the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has awarded the undergraduate scholarship, which can provide up to $30,000 annually to students. The foundation receives more than $500 million in assets from the estate of Jack Kent Cooke, who built a media empire and also owned the Los Angles Lakers and Washington Redskins. In addition to the new undergraduate scholarship program, the foundation awards graduate scholarships, and through its Young Scholars program provides financial assistance to low- and moderate-income high school students.