August 2020

Cooke Scholar Alumni Buzz

Hello Cooke Scholars and Alumni!

It was great to “see” so many of our new and old community members this month at Scholars Weekend 2020 - we hope those of you who were able to join us had a great time as we did!  For those of you who weren’t able to join us, we’ve recorded a number of the sessions and will be making them available for you to watch soon! Also, as you can probably tell, we’re changing up the look of the Alumni Buzz starting with this edition. You’ll be seeing more updates on CookeAlumni.org in the coming weeks and months. Speaking of updates, here’s 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, so please reach out and let us know what you’re up to - send us your updates at alumni@jkcf.org.

Foundation Buzz

Scholars Weekend 2020

Earlier this month, we gathered our Cooke Scholar community together for a very special, memorable, and virtual Scholars Weekend! While we unfortunately could not do it in person this year, it still proved to be a very engaging and inspiring event. We had familiar experiences like the Talent Show and Cooke Conundrum, a virtual awards ceremony, and a special keynote presentation from Cooke Scholar Alum, and host of grantee From the Top, Peter Dugan. This year’s sessions also highlighted scholar identities, exploring intersectionality and creating a stronger community through shared stories. If you missed any of these activities, stay tuned for an email with links for recordings from the event.

One Scholar, One Book: Social Justice Reading Recommendations

We’d love to have your help curating a list of books on the topic of social justice. What is one book that opened your eyes or gave you a deeper understanding about an issue that created a call to action or led you to want to make contributions to the world in this way? What book would you recommend to another scholar to read to start coming to an understanding? We are asking you to share a book recommendation from any form of social justice or socially conscious writing. They can cover issues including addiction, climate change, immigration, labor exploitation, mass incarceration, poverty, systemic racism, and other major issues that you find important. Please fill out this survey by Wednesday, September 9th, 2020. We look forward to gathering your recommendations and revealing them in the next Alumni Buzz!

Credit for idea: Jerry Mathes, 2004 Cooke Graduate Scholar & PEN America Writing for Justice Fellow.

Alumni Buzz

William Tarpeh

2003 Young Scholar; 2008 College Scholar, Stanford University; 2012 Graduate Scholar, University of California at Berkeley

During Scholars Weekend 2020, we were thrilled to announce that Dr. Tarpeh had been selected this past spring as the recipient of the 2020 Matthew J. Quinn Prize. William was chosen for his outstanding achievements and his work leading the Tarpeh Lab at Stanford University, where he is currently an assistant professor. His group’s work reimagines liquid waste streams as resources that can lead to recovery of valuable products and more efficient, less costly approaches to reducing harmful discharges to the environment. In addition, William was recently asked by the Ron Brown Scholar Program (RBSP) to be a panelist in their Virtual Salon to discuss “The Role of Science in Advancing Racial Equity” with fellow Ron Brown Scholars Jon Piper and Alexandra Sailsman.

Amy McMillen

2009 Young Scholar; 2014 College Scholar, University of Virginia

Amy’s newly published book, “Reclaiming Control: Looking Inward to Recalibrate Your Life” is now live on Amazon, where it was a #1 New Release, too! It will soon also be available at Barnes & Noble, other major retailers, and independent stores. In the book Amy talks about her journey of how she quit the prescribed path of success, uncovered ingrained beliefs around prestige & perfection, and healed from burnout. It's based on a year of research, interviews, and introspection about mindfulness, emotions, and mental health, in the context of low-income, first generation, and Black, Indigenous, People of Color identities.

Nate Marshall

2003 Young Scholar; 2008 College Scholar, Vanderbilt University

As described in a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, Nate is “a fixture of the Chicago literary scene, an event planner, a part-time rapper and breakbeat master, a full-time teacher and fast-rising multi-award-winning poet who writes about identity, Black communities and language.” Several weeks ago Nate released “Finna: Poems,” his newest book of poetry. One of the inspirations for the book happened a few years ago, when Nate met another Nate Marshall by chance, thanks to the internet. This other Nate was in the process of abandoning his candidacy for the House of Representatives in Colorado; after the Denver Post and other news organizations linked him to white supremacist groups. Read how Nate poetically writes about this encounter, and other topics that celebrate the Black vernacular.

Maliheh Paryavi

2006 Graduate Scholar, Harvard University

Dr. Paryavi, a Harvard-trained behavioral economist, leadership advisor, and speaker, who has been working in the fields of women’s empowerment, decision making, and leadership for over a decade. She created The Maliheh Paryavi Podcast, where she conducts authentic and powerful conversations with world-renowned leaders and change-makers. Season 1 of the podcast includes candid conversations with eight inspiring women pioneers. Episodes are available on: iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Spotify, and YouTube.

Sa’ed Atshan

2006 Graduate Scholar, Harvard University

Dr. Atshan recently published his new book, "Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique." With this book, he asks how transnational progressive social movements can balance struggles for liberation along more than one axis. He explores critical junctures in the history of Palestinian LGBTQ activism, revealing the queer Palestinian spirit of agency, defiance, and creativity, in the face of daunting pressures and forces working to constrict it. “Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique” explores the necessity of connecting the struggles for Palestinian freedom with the struggle against homophobia. Dr. Atshan is Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College. 

Alessandro Bailetti

2009 Undergraduate Transfer Scholar, Cornell University; 2012 Graduate Scholar, New York University

Dr. Bailetti recently received the 2019 Disease Models & Mechanisms’ (DMM) Prize for his paper entitled “Enhancer of Polycomb and the Tip60 complex repress hematological tumor initiation by negatively regulating JAK/STAT pathway activity.” The prize is awarded to the first author of the paper that is judged by the journal's editors to be the most outstanding contribution to the journal that year. Alessandro is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University in Dr. Anthony Oro's laboratory. His current research aims to understand how the genomic landscape changes and contributes during stem cell differentiation to skin. Read more about Dr. Bailetti’s recent achievement on the Disease Models & Mechanisms’ website.

Throwback Photo of the Month

Young Scholars at Scholars Weekend 2009