From CCP to Oxford scholar

After graduating from George Washington High School in the Northeast in 2010, Larry Liam Ching Liu breezed through Community College of Philadelphia and earned an associate's degree with honors.

With a scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, Liu transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he made the dean's list and earned a degree in sociology and economic policy in May.

Now, the 23-year-old, who juggled jobs as a research assistant at Penn and sold shoes in the Northeast, has been named the Cooke Foundation's first Oxford Scholar. He will spend a year at Oxford University's Lincoln College, working toward a master's in comparative social policy.

The scholarship, which is to be announced Wednesday, provides up to $85,000 for graduate study at Oxford. It stems from a new partnership between Lincoln College and the Virginia-based foundation, which provides scholarships for academically talented students with financial needs.

"I'm very grateful for this opportunity," said Liu.

Liu is also among 39 Cooke Foundation Scholars awarded annual scholarships of up to $50,000 for four years for graduate school.

Liu will use his second award to begin a doctoral program in sociology at Princeton University after he completes his studies in England.

"I'm interested in academia - teaching and pursuing research," Liu said. "Personally, I think it will be enormously useful to study at Oxford and take advantage of the academic resources there."

Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the Wharton School who hired Liu as a research assistant, said he did not know much about the Oxford scholarship but was not surprised Liu had won it.

"As a student, he's the most promising undergraduate I have ever encountered, and I have been here for 30 years," Cappelli said Tuesday. "He's a really remarkable student in terms of his effort and perseverance. . . . For fun, he reads academic works."

Cappelli said Liu's scholastic trajectory was all the more remarkable given his background. He was born and educated in Vienna, Austria, where his Chinese parents were working. A few years after Liu's father lost his job with the Austrian post office, the family moved to Northeast Philadelphia, where a relative had lived for 30 years.

Liu arrived at George Washington midway through his junior year, graduated, and then served for six months in the Austrian military.

His service completed, he went to CCP and participated in the honors program.

Even after transferring to Penn, Liu lived at home with his family and commuted to campus by bus.

"He is someone who is working really hard to get to where he has," Cappelli said.

"He is certainly a deserving student," said Ralph M. Faris, a sociology professor at CCP and a co-coordinator of the college's honors program.

Liu credits Faris with telling him about the Cooke Foundation and encouraging him to apply for one of its scholarships, which help top community college students transfer to four-year schools.

"We make sure of telling all of our students who we think would be good candidates," said Faris, who has been involved with the honors program for 34 years. "He's gone about as far as any student we've ever had."

Harold O. Levy, the Cooke Foundation's executive director, said the new partnership with Oxford shows the caliber of the undergraduate students the foundation supports.

"I've been telling people that these scholarships are like Rhodes Scholarships for poor kids," Levy said. "What better evidence than that one of our kids is going to go to Oxford every year? . . . It's recognition of what these kids are capable of in a tangible way."