December 2020

Cooke Scholar Alumni Buzz

Hello Cooke Scholars and Alumni!

We hope that you and your loved ones are doing well and are in good health as we head into the new year. There are no words that would adequately describe the challenges of 2020, but we are hopeful as we welcome in the possibilities for the new year. Here’s an update on what’s going on at the Foundation and the great things some of your fellow Cooke Scholars are doing. Alums, we’d love to feature you and your work, so please reach out and let us know what you’re up to - send us your updates at alumni@jkcf.org.

Foundation Buzz

New Blog: ¿Tienes tu cafecito? Welcome to Tertulia.

Emily Hunsberger (2009 Graduate Scholar, George Mason University) recently spent some time with the Alumni Engagement Council to talk about her life and career, and share her passion and love for the Spanish language. In 2014, she founded Tertulia, a bilingual communications consultancy business, and in 2017, she started a podcast by that same name, both of which serve to support the use of Spanish as a vibrant language for culture, commerce, and community building in the United States. Read more about Emily in the latest blog.

December Alumni Virtual Chat: Reflecting Back on 2020 and Looking Ahead to the New Year

On December 16th, we held our most recent virtual event, which featured an inspiring panel conversation with Cooke Scholar Alums Sherlyn Galarza, Ousmane Kabre, Angad Singh Padda, and Santiago Tobar Potes, which was moderated by fellow alum Stephani Calderon. The discussion instilled a fresh sense of resilience and hope as we looked back on what has been a challenging year for so many, recognized what silver linings there have been, and how these experiences and reflections may help us best prepare to move forward individually and as a community for 2021.

January Career Pathways Virtual Chat: The Art of Getting the Dream Job - Resumes, Interviews, and Networking

On Wednesday, January 27th, the Alumni Engagement Council is hosting a virtual event with a panel of alumni to discuss effective strategies and approaches to put together a compelling resume, present your best self at interviews, and make networking opportunities both meaningful and fun. The job hunt process certainly looks different during a pandemic, which poses its own compounding challenges, especially with a weakened global economy. However, we hope you join us to discuss these topics and more to takeaway some powerful advice as we further pursue our academic and professional aspirations. A formal invitation will be sent in the coming weeks, but you can register for the event right now here. We look forward to seeing you there!

Alumni Buzz

Deanna Keller

2015 Undergraduate Transfer, College of Saint Scholastica; 2018 Graduate Scholar, Arizona State University

Deanna’s purpose for working hard for an MA in English was to teach at Lake Superior College where her academic journey began. This past fall, she taught First Year Experience, a class designed to help new college students succeed. However, she was given the opportunity to teach a non-traditional group of students in a non-traditional setting. Deanna taught two World Literature classes in a complete distance learning environment to students at two correctional facilities in Minnesota. She worked with 46 highly motivated men working towards their associate degrees. While the logistics have certainly been an additional challenge, she dug in and used her creativity to make the most out of the experience for her and the students. The program is planning to offer Greek and Roman Mythology for the spring semester. 

Sheridan Clayborne

2012 Young Scholar; 2015 College Scholar, Northwestern University

Sheridan (right) with business partner Mitchell

Sheridan recently founded LendTable with his business partner Mitchell. The company’s mission is to help people by loaning them the money they need to take advantage of retirement fund matching programs that may be part of their employee benefits. According to Sheridan and Mitchell, “We saw a problem that affected too many people that we cared about — they couldn’t start saving for retirement even though they knew they should. We decided to make a solution that makes it a little less difficult." Entrepreneurship certainly seems to be built into Sheridan’s identity, as he’s now founded multiple companies. According to a recent interview with Unplugg'd, Sheridan launched four different startups, raised over $2 million in funding, and interned as an analyst for Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan - all before his 19th birthday.

Rachel Semigran

2011 Graduate Arts Scholar, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

Rachel recently started her new job as the Director of Enrollment Marketing and Communication for Swarthmore College. She was previously the communications manager for Drexel University's Goodwin College of Professional Studies. Rachel is excited about this opportunity for advancement and to work in a small liberal arts institution! In addition to being an educational leader, Rachel also has a long professional history in theater and comedy performance training. She has produced, performed and taught all over the world—from the Old Vic Theatre and the Edinburgh Fringe to Philadelphia black boxes and universities.

Joaquin Baldwin

2006 Graduate Scholar, University of California at Los Angeles

By now, most people have seen or know someone who has experimented with their appearance during the COVID-19 lockdowns of the past year. Joaquin recently turned the changes in his own facial hair into an amazing timelapse animation music video he created. He used his face as a stop-motion puppet (a technique called pixilation), and took 2,117 individual photos, every night, over 101 days, and synchronized the actions to the song "Better Days" by Radical Face. Joaquin writes, “The social isolation of the pandemic lockdown has made all of us experiment a bit with how to pass the days, as we fall into a numbing repetition where time moves but goes nowhere. If you can find a little spark of passion, some random obsession, a daily goal to push towards, it can help time become more meaningful, as we wait for the better days that lie just ahead.”

Aman Waheed

2017 Undergraduate Transfer, University of Virginia

Derrick Arthur-Cudjoe

2016 Undergraduate Transfer, Georgetown University

What’s better than one Cookie? It’s two Cookies! Aman and Derrick recently came together to start the Caring Consultants. The organization supports college students in their recruitment, job or graduate school application process by providing mentorship, including support and access to resources that they may need. This includes support for resume/cover letter reviews, mock interviews, and networking. Through this work, Aman and Derrick aim to help close the gap for low-income, first-generation, nontraditional students, and other minority communities to pursue their futures with now heightened odds. They recently started a podcast and other Cooke Scholars are also involved as mentors!

Cooke Scholars: Reflecting Back, Looking Ahead

Thanks so much to the Cooke Scholars who shared their reflections on the challenging year we've come through, what silver linings they've found, and what they're looking forward to in the year ahead. Happy Holidays and New Year to All!