April 2022
Hello Cooke Scholars and Alums!
Spring is here and everyone at the Foundation is excited to head into this new season! We’ll be welcoming the newest cohorts of Scholars soon, and as things continue to warm up, we’re also thrilled that Larry will finally be starting to travel again to do in-person events with some of our Alumni regional chapters. First up are the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City chapters, with more to be announced soon, so stay tuned!
Below is an update on what’s going on at the Foundation and some of the great things your fellow Cooke Scholars have done recently. Alums, we’d love to hear from you so we can feature the latest news about you and your work! Just send us an email at alumni@jkcf.org.
Foundation Buzz
2022 Survey of Cooke Scholar Alumni
Thank you to every Alum who completed the biennial alumni survey and updating the Foundation with what you’ve been up to! We appreciated learning about your new professional and personal journey and receiving advice to better serve the future generation of Cooke Scholars. Your survey responses will help us support your engagement with the Cooke Scholar and Alumni community. Also, congratulations to these 25 lucky Alums who will receive a $100 gift card for completing the survey: Alison D., Amanda D., Amy B., Anastasia J., Audrey N., Callistus D., Frances G., Freddy R., Giannina M., Hayley F., James K., Janelle G., Jerry M., Jessica S., Joel W., Jolyn B., Juan Joel A., Kelly S., Kevin T., Krzysztof C., Luz L., Nathan S., Omar G., Shaun Z., and Yin W.
Compass Feature: Gabby Nicholas
2014 Undergraduate Transfer, University of Florida; 2019 Graduate Scholar, Northwestern University
Gabby is a Transfer and Graduate Scholar who studied journalism as an undergraduate at the University of Florida. After realizing her career interests were in education access, she earned her Master's in Higher Education Administration and Policy from the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy. She now works as the Assistant Director of the Center for Cultural Liberation at Dominican University, where she can combine her passions for education access and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion work. To learn more about Gabby’s professional and academic journey, click here.
Community Buzz
New Blog - Catchin’ Up with a Cookie: Abbeygale Anderson
Abbey recently founded Cross Impact Capital - a new venture fund and a personal passion to decrease existing disparities and increase equitable funding within marginalized communities. With a background in private equity investment, she feels finally able to align her personal passions with professional interests through her new organization. To learn more about the important cheerleaders and advocates in Abbey’s life, how a supportive network is central to thriving, and why she thinks Oatmeal Raisin and Snickerdoodle are better cookie flavors than Chocolate Chip, click here.
Connect with an Alum
Our Cooke Scholar Alumni network is a vibrant community of more than 2,000 individuals engaged in diverse career and personal pursuits. One way you can Connect with an Alum is to complete this form and let us to introduce you to an Alum sharing similar interests and career goals.
March Career Pathways Virtual Chat: Graduate School - Expectations vs Reality
On Tuesday, March 22nd, Hannah Franz, Program Associate of Graduate Advisement, moderated a conversation with Alums Patricia Medina, Young Seol, Katie Taylor, and Brian Zamora to discuss the graduate school experience. We had a conversation about the realities of being a graduate student - particularly in PhD, Medical, and Law programs. More specifically, we discussed the ups and downs, maximizing the graduate school experience, lessons learned, and practical tips related to helping scholars explore and decide on graduate programs. You can check out the video from the event below.
April Career Pathways Virtual Chat: Pursuing Your Interests Beyond the 9-to-5
Join us as the Alumni Engagement Council hosts a conversation with a panel of Alums to discuss how they pursue interests beyond their full-time job. Come to learn strategies and approaches to make outside-of-work-time fulfilling and meaningful through building a startup project or business, volunteer work with your community, expressing yourself artistically, or picking up a new skill or hobby. A formal invitation will be sent soon, but you can register for the event right now here.
Alumni Buzz
2013 Young Scholar; 2012 College Scholar, Harvard University; 2016 Graduate Scholar, University of Iowa
Stella's prize-winning book of poetry, Spooks, was released on March 15 by Saturnalia Books. Her debut book of poems “playfully subverts and willfully challenges any notions we might have about Asian Americanness and its niceties.” Several bookstores, including Barnes and Noble, were already out of stock or backordered, so make sure you place your order now!
2002 Graduate Scholar, College of William and Mary
Ian was in Ukraine a few months ago and is currently working around the clock to support Ukraine and its people. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Ian has written a few articles to add perspective on the conflict in Eastern Europe. Back in late February, Ian wrote for Politico an opinion piece with David Soud and Rohini Ralby titled “Why the U.S. Needs to Act Fast to Prevent Russia from Weaponizing Food Supply Chains”. Ian is CEO of I.R. Consilium, a family firm specializing in maritime and resource security - which you can read more about the firms’ analysis on the conflict here. He is an expert in maritime law and security and has been working in Ukraine and the Black Sea for several years.
2011 Graduate Arts Scholar, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Congratulations to Rachel and the admissions team at Swarthmore College for picking up tons of CUPPIE awards at the College and University Public Relations Association of Pennsylvania (CUPRAP) conference! They received outstanding recognition for categories including photography, virtual events, and social media - winning 16 awards in total at the conference. At the event, Rachel, who is Director of Enrollment Marketing & Communications at Swarthmore, led a presentation titled “Breaking Through the Noise in Recruitment Messaging” and presented Swarthmore College's unique approach to recruitment messaging and how it yields equally unique admissions results.
2007 Young Scholar; 2012 College Scholar, Barnard College; 2016 Graduate Scholar, Columbia University
Dina is currently doing her graduate work in anthropology as a William Fontaine Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Her doctoral research focuses on the relationship between medicine and sovereignty in Eritrea. Specifically, her work examines how and why Eritreans refer to injury and clinical infrastructure (such as an underground hospital and resource exchange within this medical network) developed in the context of trench warfare during the Eritrean Armed Struggle for Independence against imperial Ethiopia (1961-1991) as the ground of articulating political futures. Dina's work has been supported by the Social Science Research Council-Mellon Foundation partnership, the Marcus Garvey Memorial Foundation, Penn's Anthropology Department, and the Penn Museum. An interview about Dina's work with the National Council of Eritrean-Americans (NCEA) was recently featured on the Eritrean Ministry of Information's website.
2006 Undergraduate Transfer, University of Michigan
Recently featured in the San Diego Voyager, Kamal is interviewed and talks about his journey from Palestine to Michigan and his love for science, nature, and creative writing. His most recent book published in 2018, Rhythms: A Thriller of Love & Freedom Rhythms is Kamal’s first fiction novel. Although dramatized, Rhythms' plot is based on true life events that he had encountered, and it narrates a love story and sheds light on the making of a revolution, employing a variety of lively elements; such as science, politics, and music. Kamal is currently a business development manager at Navigate BioPharma Services.
2018 Undergraduate Transfer, Yale University; 2021 Graduate Scholar, University of Cambridge
This past month, Sarah announced her candidacy for Minnesota’s first congressional district! In launching her campaign, she writes, “My life experiences growing up as a foster kid and homeless teen have inspired me to dedicate myself to serve our community. I am uniquely qualified to bring the focus of this campaign to the plight of the unhoused, the food insecure, racial inequity and lifestyle discrimination.” Sarah spent seven years as a political consultant - starting in canvassing and then managing and owning her own business.
Throwback Photo of the Month
Young Scholars at Scholars Weekend 2009