November 2022
Hello Cooke Scholars and Alumni!
It’s been so great to see so many of you getting together in person the last month of so to celebrate both the beginning of the new school year and Mr. Cooke’s birthday, as the NYC area regional chapter did last week (picture above). Here’s an update on what’s going on in the community and the great things some of your fellow Cooke Scholars are doing. Alums, we’d love to feature you and your work in an upcoming edition, so please reach out and let us know what you’re up to - send us your updates at alumni@jkcf.org.
Community Buzz
Welcome Our New Manager of Alumni Engagement!
As many of you know, Larry Thi left the Foundation last month as he prepares to take a career break and travel through Southeast Asia. We will all miss Larry and are thankful for both his amazing spirit and his many contributions to the Foundation and the Scholar community, and look forward to reengaging with him when he returns sometime next year.
We are simply thrilled to share that Cooke Scholar Alum Gabriella Nicholas has accepted our offer to join the Foundation in this same role! Gabby is a 2014 Transfer Scholar, and a 2019 Graduate Scholar. Gabby has worked in a number of roles in education, including positions at 12+, Bottom Line, the Pat Tillman Foundation, Dominican University, and most recently at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as their Assistant Director of DEI Signature Programs.
Throughout Gabby’s time as a student and now as a professional, she has been a highly engaged and invaluable member of the Scholar community. She has given back in just about every way possible, and it is truly a blessing to have someone stepping into this role who has been so involved with so many aspects of our work. With Gabby in this role, I am confident that we will keep up the momentum on the great work Larry did with so many of our initiatives, new and old, while also allowing us to evolve and grow them. We look forward to her joining the team on November 7th!
Celebrating Mr. Cooke’s birthday and connecting with your Regional Chapter
As we mentioned above, it’s been so wonderful to see some of the in-person events you all have been holding this fall, especially these past few weeks to celebrate Mr. Cooke’s birthday. The New York chapter (pictured at top) enjoyed a meal together and then attended an exhibition that has been curated by fellow Alum Emann Odufu at the National Arts Club. The Los Angeles (below left) and Philadelphia (below right) chapters also recently gathered to share meals together, and we’re expecting to see upcoming gatherings in such places as Washington D.C., San Diego, Houston, and Chicago. If you’re looking to get involved in a chapter near you, you can find the full list of Chapters and Chapter Leaders here. Also, feel free to email us at alumni@jkcf.org to connect with the Chapter Leaders in your region or if you would like to get in touch with other Alums in your region not listed on the webpage.
Join the BIPOC Scholar Alumni/Staff Working Group
If you identify as Black, Indigenous or a Person of Color (BIPOC), consider joining the Foundation’s BIPOC Scholar Alumni/Staff Working Group. Our goal is to inform the Foundation about the BIPOC Scholar and Alumni experiences with the Cooke Scholarship programs and at Scholars’ schools, colleges, and universities. The group advises the Foundation on an array of racial equity matters, including selection and advising of Scholars, Alumni engagement and support, and how to improve the Scholar experience for future cohorts. To learn more about getting involved, click here.
New Blog: A Life’s Work: Reimagining Early Childhood Education
Cooke Scholar Alum Izzi Greenberg (2005 Transfer Scholar) has dedicated her career to working on youth justice issues, childhood hunger, family economic security, and improving the early childhood education sector. For the past nine years, Izzi has been the Executive Director of the Middlesex Coalition for Children in Connecticut, and she is passionate about her work organizing and advocating for children and early childcare providers statewide. Check out our latest blog here to learn more about Izzi and her important work!
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 introduce you to an Alum sharing similar interests and career goals.
Alumni Buzz
Photo credit: Joshua Roberts
2007 Graduate Scholar, University of Washington
Earlier this fall, Kiera (5th from left above), a Program Officer at the State Department in Washington DC, found out that she and two colleagues were receiving Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (a.k.a. Sammies) for their work in Operation Allies Welcome where they resettled more than 72,000 Afghan refugees who fled their country when their government fell to Taliban control. Kiera and her team played multiple roles - de facto social workers, logisticians, cultural advisors, and advocates - and built partnerships with both private companies and nonprofit groups, resulting in the largest single resettlement effort in recent U.S. history. The daunting challenges and obstacles they overcame led Uzra Zeya, the State Department undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, to say that, “what they achieved was nothing short of impossible.” Bloomberg Television will air a special about this year’s recipients on November 23rd at 8:00 p.m. EST, and the award ceremony will also be streamed on the Partnership for Public Service’s YouTube page. You can also watch the congratulatory video from Secretary of State Antony Blinken below!
2015 College Scholar, Lehigh University
Adhitya just made the move from Washington DC to Texas to start a new role as Senior Demand Planner with Tesla's Energy Products team, where he’ll be focusing on strategy and demand planning for the company’s grid scale energy storage Megapack product. Coming from a background in both material science and economics, he is particularly excited about the multifaceted nature of this role, which will allow him to flex both his engineering and economics brain muscles. Adhitya also shared that the opportunity to work on a product at the intersection of tech and sustainability has been a career goal of his for some time, and that helping scale a product that will aid in the necessary and rapid energy transition will help him sleep at night!
2001 Young Scholar; 2006 College Scholar, University of Pennsylvania; 2010 Graduate Scholar, University of Pennsylvania
Maria, a self-proclaimed grateful graduate of the Young Scholar, College Scholar, and Graduate Scholar programs, is working as a primary care nurse practitioner within the Northeast Ohio VA Healthcare system. Last month, the proud mother of two was interviewed on The Podcast by KevinMD to discuss an article she wrote about her personal experience as a patient with postpartum preeclampsia. You can watch the episode featuring Maria here.
2008 Transfer Scholar, Columbia University
Last month, Fidel started a new job at the NYS Executive Chamber in the Intergovernmental Affairs team as Representative to the Governor in the Bronx Region. Prior to this, he served for seven years in several capacities in the NYC Mayor’s Office, tackling a variety of special projects ranging from voter education, Bronx tenant support services, to assisting in the expansion of the historic Pre-K for All program. Somehow, Fidel still found time to be a competitive runner who has to date completed eight marathons!
2003 Young Scholar; 2008 College Scholar, Stanford University; 2012 Graduate Scholar, University of California at Berkeley
Last month, Dr. Tarpeh’s lab was one of two Stanford University labs Microsoft founder and global philanthropist Bill Gates visited when he came to the university’s new Doerr School of Sustainability. William shared that during the inspiring day, he and his students were able to give Gates a tour of their lab facility and answer questions about their research on making valuable products from water pollutants. The visit was equally inspiring to Gates, as he shared it in a recent edition of Gates Notes. You can learn more about Dr. Tarpeh’s lab here, and watch a video of the visit that Gates shared below.
Throwback Photo of the Month
Transfer Scholars at Scholars Weekend 2014 (Can you find Gabby?)