Eight students from Georgia State University’sPerimeter Collegehave been named semifinalists for the 2024Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. The Jack Kent Cooke award is a competitive scholarship for the nation’s top two-year college students. It provides recipients with up to $55,000 per year,placing the scholarship among the largest private awards in the country for community college transfer students.
Thesemifinalists, all PerimeterHonors Collegestudents working toward theirassociate degrees, are among 459 individuals selected from more than 1,600 applicants attending 194 community colleges in 37 states, plus Washington, DC, and the Northern Mariana Islands The following is one of the student profiles.
CLARKSTON, Ga.—Haneen Ahmed feels as though she’s in her ‘second home’ when on the Clarkston Campus in Perimeter College’s STEM lab.
That’s where she gets to flex her creativity, experimenting most recently with the lab’s 3-D printer to create small model rocket awards as prizes for a bottle rocket launch challenge sponsored by the Women in STEM Experience (WiSE).
It has been a busy few months for the club, and as WiSE president, Ahmed has led the charge.
One of eight semifinalists for the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, Ahmed stays busy throughout the semester engaging in various activities and using her vivacious and dynamic personality to encourage fellow students to achieve in and outside the classroom.
Since arriving at Perimeter in the fall of 2022, she has worked tirelessly to increase the club’s enrollment, nearly tripling its membership to more than 100 students. In the process, she’s brought an energy that is reflected in the club’s many activities, including corporation visits, campus events, field trips, student research presentations and community engagements.
Most recently, the student-led group traveled to Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant for a tour. In the community, WiSE club members shared their science knowledge making bath bombs with families housed at the Ronald McDonald House in Decatur.
Ahmed also is active as vice president of the Clarkston Computing and Engineering Club, helping with their multiple projects. Her club activities are in addition to balancing her engineering studies both on Clarkston and Dunwoody campuses. Ahmed recently received recognition for her dedication and leadership by receiving Perimeter’s STAR Award for Student Leadership Excellence.
News of being named a semifinalist for the Jack Kent Cooke scholarship was “surreal,” Ahmed said.
“I’m super excited and can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
Ahmed also said that winning the Cooke scholarship would positively impact her dream of attending Georgia Tech with her goal of becoming an environmental engineer one day.
The youngest of three children, Ahmed was just five years old when her family, seeking refuge, emigrated to the United States from Iraq in 2009 during the Iraq War. The family settled in Clarkston, where Ahmed adapted to her new life in America.
While her older siblings are not involved in STEM careers, Ahmed was inspired by to get involved in environmental issues by her high school environmental science teacher, who also was the Environmental Club advisor at Parkview High School. As the club's president, Ahmed worked to get recycling at her school and monitored water health at Garner Creek, by Parkview’s outdoor classroom. Along with the Environmental Club, she also was co-president of the school's German Honor Society and president of the Muslim Student Association.
While at Perimeter, she expanded her interest toward pursuing a career as a mechanical engineer to gain technical skills. Ahmed eventually wants to get her master’s in environmental engineering.
“I realized that mechanical engineers are able to work on technical problems, and that’s what I want to do,” she said.
“I’m interested in developing efficient systems for carbon capture to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, as well as creating new wastewater filtration systems. Mechanical and environmental engineering are like the best of both worlds for these goals.”
Ahmed has also worked on and presented research on an autonomous fertilizing robot—with fellow JKC semifinalist Min Khant Zaw—during the college’s Math Engineering and Computer Science conference in February. They also will present their research at Georgia State University’s Research Conference April 11.
Although she commutes from her current home in Lilburn, the Clarkston Campus has become home to her.
“I’m here pretty much all the time,” she said.
“I like Clarkston, it’s so diverse and there is a place for everyone from different backgrounds. The faculty are so friendly and I’m not afraid to walk up to a professor to talk and ask questions.”
Ahmed recently landed a research position at Boston University’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) this summer. She will work in the Sean Lubner Lab on research within the energy field. And after attending the National Society of Black Engineers Conference with other Perimeter students in March, she was offered a co-op position for Spring 2025 in Houston at LyondellBasell, a chemical industry company.
The Cooke Foundation will announce its 2024 winners later this spring.
Story by Rebecca Rakoczy
Photo by Bill Roa
