Holy Cross graduate Jeffrey Reppucci has been awarded the prestigious Knight-Hennessy Scholarship, which provides full funding for the graduate program of the student’s choosing at Stanford University.
Reppucci, class of 2014 valedictorian, majored in Russian studies and was a member of the men’s hockey team at Holy Cross. He is part of the fourth group to be awarded the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship at Stanford, and is the second Holy Cross student to win the award.
The cohort of 76 Scholars—selected from a pool of 6,171 applicants—includes participants from 26 countries, with each recipient receiving funding at one of 37 graduate degree programs at Stanford University.
Worth approximately $350,000, the award will cover tuition, travel, books and living costs and will fund Reppucci’s master’s in Business Administration and master’s in Public Policy degrees at Stanford. In addition to the monetary funding, Reppucci will also be able to participate in leadership development programs, international trips and a multi-disciplinary cohort of fellow scholars across Stanford’s seven graduate schools.
The Knight-Hennessy Scholar Program was founded in 2016 to support and fund graduate students at Stanford University. Every year, high-achieving students from around the world receive full funding to pursue any graduate degree at Stanford, as well as joint- and dual-degrees. Knight-Hennessy Scholars is the largest fully endowed scholars program in the world.
“I am overwhelmingly grateful to be joining the diverse, global community of Knight-Hennessy Scholars,” said Reppucci. “This funding and leadership curriculum will hopefully enable me to be an effective leader in public sector innovation someday. I am very proud to represent Holy Cross at Stanford this fall, and I cannot thank the advisors, professors, coaches and fellow alumni of Holy Cross enough for their mentorship and friendship throughout the past 10 years.”
In addition to being a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship (twice) and the John Wooden Award for public service among college athletes, Reppucci’s honors include the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Fellowships for Peace for language study at Middlebury, the Kathryn Davis 100 Projects for Peach (in Russia), the Truman Scholarship for public service, the NCAA’s Hockey Humanitarian Award, and the Fulbright Scholarship to Argentina.
Perhaps his greatest legacy is Working for Worcester, an annual event that brings volunteers together for a build day to complete projects that create or revitalize play and educational spaces for kids in Worcester.
“The Knight-Hennessy award caps off Jeff’s illustrious fellowships career at Holy Cross, where he is the most decorated undergraduate in the college’s history,” said Anthony B. Cashman, director of the Office of Distinguished Fellowships and Graduate Studies at the college. “The master’s in Business Administration and master’s in Public Policy degrees will help Jeff start his own social entrepreneurship ventures, while learning how to navigate the complex interface among representatives from the business world, nonprofits and NGOs and government agencies.”
