Coolidge Alumni News and Notes
The Coolidge Foundation has a growing network of alumni who are accomplishing big things. These young people have participated with the Foundation
as Coolidge Scholars—a select group of high school students who receive full-ride, four-year college scholarships;
as Coolidge Senators—outstanding students who attend a multiday summit and take part in formal debates on issues of national importance;
and through the Coolidge Speech and Debate Program, whose alumni belong to the 1890 Society.
Coolidge alumni from around the world have checked in with this news.
2016
Joshua Moriarty (Scholar) writes, “I’m starting a PhD in religion at Harvard before heading to Yale for law school.”
2018
Nick Jacobson (Senator) graduated from Yale in 2023. He is now running for Pennsylvania state representative in the Eighty-Fifth House District, where he grew up.
2019
Aishani Aatresh (Senator) has earned a Rhodes Scholarship. She graduated from Harvard in May, earning a bachelor’s degree in a major of her own design: complex biosocial systems. During the pandemic she worked with emergency management in the nation’s largest health-care system, New York City Health and Hospitals. In the fall, Aishani will use her Rhodes Scholarship to study nature, society, and environmental governance at the University of Oxford.
Nathaniel Fernandes (Senator) attends Texas A&M on a Brockman Scholarship, a merit-based, full-ride scholarship for outstanding STEM students. As a Brockman Scholar, he will graduate in five years with both an undergraduate degree and a Master of Science in Business (MSB). Nathaniel writes, “I won second place ($5,000) for pitching a med-tech startup to revolutionize medical billing and coding for private practice physicians.” He plans to apply to medical school when he finishes his MSB.
Malaina Kapoor (Senator), a student at Stanford University, is already a published author. In 2023, Penguin Random House released Defiant Dreams, a book she wrote with Sola Mahfouz. Defiant Dreams recounts Mahfouz’s life growing up in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Library Journal calls it a “heartbreaking, inspiring memoir.” Malaina writes, “I also published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled ‘No Beauty Salons in Afghanistan’ to bring attention to the Taliban’s destructive edicts that have stripped women of their basic human rights.” She founded Women in National Security (WINS), “a federally funded initiative to combat female underrepresentation in national security and support female Stanford students who are interested in entering the space.”
Rohit Kataria (Senator) recently graduated from Vanderbilt University. While in school, he founded the national student network the Asian American Studies Collaborative. Asian Americans Advancing Justice honored Rohit with its Norman Y. Mineta Spirit Award.
Kyle Lewis (Senator) graduated from Yale in May and will start at Harvard Law School this fall.
Katherine McPhie (Scholar) is studying computer science at Harvard. This spring, she represented her university in the New England Olympiada of Spoken Russian. She won second place for her memorized oration of “To a Poet” by Alexander Pushkin. Katherine also sang in Harvard’s commencement choir and played trumpet in the commencement band. This summer, she is spending nine weeks in an intensive Chinese immersion program at the Harvard Taipei Academy in Taiwan.
2020
Naomi Bashkansky (Senator) will earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in computer science from Harvard in 2025. This summer she is working at the newly formed U.S. AI Safety Institute. Previously she interned as a quantitative researcher at the trading firm Jane Street.
Jack Klitgaard (Scholar) got married on May 18. Jack participates in Baylor’s prestigious University Scholars program. He plans to attend medical school.
2021
Eason Rytter (Senator) packed in a lot of activity before completing his first year at Yale. He writes, “I was honored to be named a 2022 National Merit Scholarship recipient, a national YoungArts winner for Spoken and Musical Theater, and a 2022 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Following graduation from high school, I took a gap year in the UK, during which I completed a diploma in performing arts at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. That year, I also filmed a small role in Sony Pictures’ No Hard Feelings. I was an Americans for the Arts 2022 National Arts Policy Roundtable Fellow.” This summer, Eason is serving as a field and lab apprentice on the Smith’s Island project, an archaeological dig uncovering the first British settlement in Bermuda.
2022
Luke Pollock (1890 Society), who studies economics at the University of Alabama, is excelling in debate and public speaking. He writes, “In my novice year competing with the Alabama Forensics Council, I was a runner-up in impromptu and a finalist in three other speeches at the National Online Forensics Championship (NOFC). I also placed top sixteen in debate at the NOFC and placed top ten in extemporaneous at the American Forensics Association National Speech Tournament.” Luke plans to pursue a master’s degree in economics after graduating.
2023
Mark Bausch (Senator) earned one of twenty full-ride Stamps Scholarships to the University of Notre Dame, where he will study neuroscience.
Maximilian Belyantsev (Senator) writes, “I was recently named a semifinalist in the U.S. Department of Education’s Presidential Scholars Program.” He will attend Columbia University.
Elia Cavanaugh (Senator) will attend Stanford University this fall and intends to study engineering.
Destiny Hale (1890 Society) writes, “I am one of ten annual Leadership and Character Scholars at Wake Forest University. I was also inducted as a Presidential Scholar in debate. The American Debate Association recognized me as the JV debater of the year. My team was also recognized as the top JV team in the nation.”
Griffin Hon (Scholar) was named valedictorian of his high school and a National Merit Scholar. He will attend Princeton.
Siddarth Kasi (Senator) writes, “The funding for my project to supply fifty-three hospitals in rural South India with labor ward equipment to decrease fetal, infant, and maternal mortality has been approved by Rotary International. We have successfully raised more than $90,000 for the initiative.” Siddarth will enroll at the University of California, Berkeley.
Nadia Pavlov (Senator) writes, “I just committed to the University of Tulsa, where I received a full ride with a stipend. I am also going to Scotland this summer.”
Ethan Ristu (Senator) was named a National Merit Scholar. He will enter Harvard this fall.
Josiah Sullivan (1890 Society), a student at Clemson University, is spending the summer in Washington, D.C., as a government affairs intern for the Family Research Council.