October 2020

Cooke Scholar Alumni Buzz

Hello Cooke Scholars and Alumni!

We continue to wish you and your loved ones the best health and safety during these challenging times. And we’d be remiss not to recognize that October 25th was the birthday of Mr. Cooke; it was wonderful to see a number of you all connecting virtually to celebrate! Here’s an update on what’s going on in our alumni community and the great things some of your fellow Cooke Scholar alumni are doing. Alums, we’d love to know what you’re up to, so please send us your updates at alumni@jkcf.org.

Foundation Buzz

Alumni Engagement Council

Nine alumni recently joined us in establishing an Alumni Engagement Council. Our goal is to lead our alumni programming with alumni representing the diverse backgrounds, strengths, scholarship programs, professional experiences, and geographic distribution that empower our Cooke Scholar and Alumni community. Throughout the 2020-21 academic year, the council will support the Cooke Scholar and Alumni community through facilitating virtual programming, curating blog content on this website, promoting our community’s work for social justice and diversity, equity, and belonging, and forging our scholar and alumni network through Cooke Connect. Please join us in welcoming our inaugural members of the council: Jacobi Alvarez, Alessandro Bailetti, Stephani Calderon, Kevin Davenport, Ernest Dimbo, Sharmen Hettipola, Chelsea Hipwell, Gabby Nicholas, and Luis Veloz!

Career Pathways Exchange Virtual Chats

On October 28th, Jacobi Alvarez moderated a conversation with fellow alums Ezekiel Adigun of Dancing with your Doctor and Jessica Harris of Oracle Acts followed by a live Q&A session. Watch the video below to hear them talk about how they’ve integrated their passion for dance into their entrepreneurial ventures. On November 19th at 8pm Eastern Time, the Alumni Engagement Council will facilitate a conversation with Cooke Scholar Alumni law school grads who have dedicated their careers to advancing social justice. A formal invitation will be sent in the coming days, but you can register for that event right now using this link.

Alumni Buzz

Haydée Cuza

2002 Undergraduate Transfer Scholar, Loyola Marymount University; 2007 Graduate Scholar, University of California at Los Angeles

Haydée is excited to share that she is embarking on an entrepreneurial journey with the launch of Inspiring Executive Strategies! As the founder and Executive Strategist and Coach, she partners with executives, staff, the board of directors, and funders to identify where finances intersect with their mission. Inspiring Executive Strategies offers services that promote learning, understanding, and accountability to how organizations function and how each piece impacts the whole. As a queer, multicultural, mixed womyn of color, who is deeply committed to collective learning and transformation, Haydée’s goal is to be an entrepreneur grounded in self-love so that she can support the collective community. Read more about her journey on her blog.

Will Allen

2009 Graduate Scholar, Oxford University

Will recently started a new job as a Supernumerary Teaching Fellow in Politics at St John’s College, University of Oxford. He completed a DPhil (PhD) in Politics at the University of Oxford in 2019 studying the roles of media and evidence in shaping what people think about immigration in Great Britain. He received the 2020 Thomas E Patterson Best Dissertation Award from the Political Communication section of the American Political Science Association (APSA) and the 2020 Lord Bryce Prize in Comparative Politics from the UK Political Studies Association (PSA). In addition, this summer Will was awarded a new grant (as Co-Investigator) from UK Research and Innovation that will track British attitudes to migrant labor during the Covid-19 pandemic. He is happy to connect with Cooke Scholars and Alumni about studying at Oxford or elsewhere in the UK, or about pursuing a research career.

Brennan Peters

2013 Graduate Arts Scholar, American Film Institute Conservatory

Brennan is the Executive Producer of the recently launched Small Offerings Salon which is a series of pre-recorded performances made available online to raise funds to benefit endeavors and worthy causes. Each event is a curation of stories, poems, songs and these pieces are performed by actors, musicians, writers, activists. Performers are from a diverse writing and performing talent, variety of personal and professional backgrounds, and different places in their careers. The first salon benefited the See Lighting Foundation that provides cash assistance to immigrant theater artists who have been affected by the Covid-19 shutdown. Follow Small Offerings Salon on Instagram.

Angad Singh Padda

2015 Undergraduate Transfer Scholar, University of California at Berkeley

Angad was excited to share with us that he is about to join the Corporate Strategy and Operations team of an industry-leading technology unicorn in Toronto, so stay tuned for more news on that. When he graduated from the Berkeley Haas School of Business Class of 2017 with Highest Honors and was a featured commencement speaker, his speech went viral with more than 100 million views across social media platforms. While in college, he taught three top-rated and highly sought-after courses on Emotional Intelligence (EQ), Charisma and Public Speaking, and Leveraged Buyouts. Since graduating, Angad has been working in the Healthcare and Technology Investment Banking groups at J.P. Morgan in San Francisco and London. He is actively involved in schooling, drug rehabilitation, and women-empowerment focused social work in North India. Read more about Angad's advice for personal and professional growth in the Haas Undergraduate Student Blog.

Karen Cruz

2006 Young Scholar; 2011 College Scholar, Yale University; 2017 Graduate Scholar, Harvard University

Karen recently became a Program Facilitator for ImmSchools, an immigrant-led non-profit whose mission is to ensure schools are safe and welcoming spaces for undocumented students and families. In the organization’s first year, ImmSchools trained over 950 educators and school staff, and also supported more than 960 students and families through workshops on rights and college access. After finishing her graduate school work at Harvard in 2017, Karen taught science in both public and private schools in Dallas. She left Texas last year and moved to New Jersey, which she now calls home. In addition to her new role with ImmSchools, Karen continues to work at the Princeton University Art Museum, where her job involves the creation of digital content for the museum.

Daniel Alejandro Leon-Davis

2011 Undergraduate Transfer Scholar, American University

Daniel recently moved to Atlanta, GA and is currently leading creative design and strategy for the #IStandWithImmigrants Initiative, and was selected as a Civic Media Fellow for the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Innovation Lab, where he is exploring the power of design to affect social change through fashion, art and the built environment. He made the difficult the decision last year to leave The Soze Agency, where, as a Co-founder and Creative Director, Daniel created and worked on campaigns focused on uplifting the narratives of our most impacted communities: from the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to the countless young people of color who are demanding to be seen and heard. You can find out more about Daniel’s work at his website and in the video we produced about his entrepreneurial journey below.

Laura Amussen

2004 Graduate Scholar, Maryland Institute College of Art

Laura is an award-winning artist, an educator at Towson University, the former director of exhibitions and curator at Goucher College, and an active participant in Baltimore’s local art scene. From large scale site-specific installations to intimate sculptures, Laura’s work encompasses a broad range of concepts and media. Her background in the medical field instilled an innate sensitivity for the human condition; her works often explore the psychological realms of humanity. She creates projects that tell a story, evoking a sensorial and visceral response that is at once personal and communal. Most recently, Laura was awarded a $10,000 Mary Sawyer Baker Artist Award for Interdisciplinary Arts. Her winning portfolio can be viewed here along with her most recent body of work as sculptor-in-residence at Ladew Topiary Gardens.

Santiago Tobar Potes

2016 College Scholar, Columbia University

In a recent article for Forbes, Santiago writes about the barriers he experiences navigating graduate school admissions as a first-generation, low-income college graduate. He points out how the current graduate school admissions process makes it challenging for applicants with limited resources to pursue post-graduate studies such as affording graduate school test prep and exam fees coupled with the challenges of transitioning from college into the workforce. Santiago is currently applying to law school, and has appeared on CNN, NBC, and Fox to advocate for and discuss education and immigration issues.

Throwback Photo of the Month

Cooke FoundationOctober 30, 2020