Catchin' Up With a Cookie: Tala Alahmar

Our Catchin’ Up with a Cookie blog features Cooke Alum Tala Alahmar, a 2021 Undergraduate Transfer Scholar and 2023 Graduate Scholar at Georgetown University. In this blog, she shares about her experience attending Scholars Weekend for the first time, transitioning to graduate school, and attending the Michigan vs. OSU football game in 2021. Read more about Tala here...

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Cooke Scholar Alums
Cooke Career Snapshot: Religious Services & Ministry with Hannah Scarborough

In this blog, Cooke Alum Hannah Scarborough reflects on her career journey, starting with a strong drive for financial stability as a motivation behind her college ambitions. Through experiences at Yale and various internships, she discovered a deeper calling towards nonprofit and faith-based work, ultimately leading her to a role in ministry at Yale. This path, influenced by her interactions with fellow scholars, has allowed her to focus on personal growth, service, and making a meaningful impact on others.

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Cooke Scholar Alums
Catchin' Up With a Cookie: Marie Febrillet

Our Catchin’ Up with a Cookie blog features Cooke Alum Marie Febrillet, a 2020 Undergraduate Transfer Scholar from Columbia University. In this blog, she shares about her experience connecting with fellow Scholars at Columbia, and how she made the most of her time after graduating. Read more about Marie here...

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Cooke Scholar Alums
Catchin' Up With a Cookie: Sakshi Sehgal

Our Catchin’ Up with a Cookie blog features Cooke Alum Sakshi Sehgal, a 2018 College Scholar and 2021 Graduate Scholar at the Medical College of Georgia. In this blog, she shares more about her academic journey, and how she has been inspired by the Cooke community. You can read more about her here.

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Cooke Scholar Alums
Aman and Meelod Waheed: The Shared Scholarship Experience of Two Brothers

In this blog, brothers Aman and Meelod share their experiences of receiving the Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship a few years apart and how it shaped their educational and career journeys. The brothers also reflect on how being part of a close-knit scholar community strengthened their bond and allowed them to support each other in unique ways. Through their shared journey, they offer insights and advice for other siblings navigating similar paths, highlighting the importance of embracing the opportunity, learning from one another, and making the most of the scholar network.

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Cooke Scholar Alums
20 Years of Cooke Conundrum: The Scholars Weekend Tradition that Never Fails to Puzzle the Community

For any Cooke Scholar who has attended a Scholars Weekend in the past two decades, they’re probably familiar with the famous, or infamous (depending on who you ask), Cooke Conundrum. This hours-long team activity encourages Scholars to work together to solve a series of experiential puzzles that rely on various skills and problem-solving abilities in the group. In this blog, we share the history of the Cooke Conundrum. 

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Cooke Foundation
Catchin' Up With a Cookie: Patrick Soltis

Our Catchin’ Up with a Cookie blog post features Cooke Alum Patrick Soltis, a 2009 Young Scholar, 2014 College Scholar, and 2020 Graduate Scholar from UC Berkeley. Currently, Patrick supports a Virginia utility in designing demand-side management programs for the electrified future, starting with immediate solutions for data center service constraints. You can read more about him here...

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Cooke Scholar Alums
Cooke Career Snapshot: Systems Engineering with Gustavo Diaz Galeas

Gustavo Diaz Galeas, an Embedded Systems Engineer at Connected Wise, has been instrumental in developing innovative transportation engineering solutions since 2022. With Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Computer Engineering, specializing in computer systems and security, Gustavo shares more about his career journey and what a typical day looks like in his role. Read the blog here.

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Cooke Scholar Alums
Catchin' Up With a Cookie: Josue Luna

Our April Catchin’ Up with a Cookie blog post features Cooke Alum Josue Luna, a 2018 Undergraduate Transfer Scholar and 2024 Graduate Scholar. He shares about several academic opportunities he has experienced, including a fellowship in Germany in the field of 3D Nanometrology. You can read more about him here...

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Cooke Scholar Alums
Wearing Multiple Hats as a Cooke Scholar and a Parent

For some Cooke Scholars, the usual challenges of taking college courses need to be balanced with competing priorities of raising a family or working a full-time job. Managing so many time-intensive demands was not easy for Cooke Graduate Scholar Corey Lamb or Cooke Alum Edna (Simbi) Beuchi, but both found that their work and families deeply motivated them to persevere.

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Cooke Foundation