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 in Washington, D.C., 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
Regan Brady (Scholar, 2016) graduated from Harvard in 2022 and now works as an analyst at Linse Capital. Linse is a growth-equity firm based in Puerto Rico that invests in industrial technology companies. Regan tells us that she is working closely with startups across clean energy, mobility, manufacturing, supply chain, and robotics.
Riley Juenemann (Senator, 2016) writes, “I am a computational and mathematical engineering PhD student at Stanford University, supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, the Stanford Graduate Fellowship, and the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education Fellowship. My research focuses on computational modeling of bacteria.”
Nikhil Patel (Senator, 2016) has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for health care. He founded the company Craniometrix to empower family caregivers with the tools needed to provide the best possible dementia care for loved ones. Craniometrix has raised $6 million in seed funding. Nikhil writes, “We partner with health systems to provide better care and get the system more revenue. If anyone has contacts at health systems, would love to meet!”
2017
Reese Caldwell (Senator, 2017) writes, “I just began my PhD at Harvard in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.”
Alex Hu (Senator, 2017) received a prestigious Marshall Scholarship, which he is using to read for an MA in war studies from King’s College London. From London he writes, “I spent the past summer traveling across the United States on a research trip.” Alex was in Hawaii when the devastating Maui wildfires broke out in August. In October, City Journal published his investigation into the regulatory, geographical, and historical obstacles to Maui’s recovery.
Kali Konstantinopoulos (Senator, 2017) graduated from Indiana University in 2022, having completed undergraduate research through Harvard’s Quantitative Biology Initiative. Kali reports, “I’m now an MD-PhD dual-degree student in the Indiana Medical Scientist Training Program. I will earn my MD at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a PhD in biomedical engineering from Purdue University. I am interested in using mathematical modeling to gain insight into disease progression and treatment.”
Logan Smith (Senator, 2017) writes, “I am currently a doctoral candidate in radiochemistry at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I have been awarded a University Nuclear Leadership Program fellowship from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund my work.”
2018
Joshua Anumolu (1890 Society and Senator, 2018) graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the spring of 2023. He writes, “After graduation, I started working for Distributed Sun, a startup developing distributed energy resources in Washington, D.C.”
Shreyas Iyer (1890 Society and Senator, 2018) cofounded Antimetal, which has created an AI-powered tool to optimize cloud computing costs. The company has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch.
Matthew Muellner (Scholar, 2018) graduated from Yale this past May with degrees in neuroscience and computer science. He has begun medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine.
Luis Sanchez Boedo (Senator, 2018) graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and now works at Boston Consulting Group as an associate.
Brison Shira (Senator, 2018) received the College of Charleston’s 2023 Presidential Award for Scholarship, Leadership, and Service. He is now pursuing a PhD in chemistry at Purdue University.
Karthik Sreedhar (Senator, 2018) has begun graduate studies at Columbia University. He is pursuing master’s degrees in both journalism and computer science.
Katherine Sylvester (Scholar, 2018) graduated from Yale and returned home to the Washington, D.C., area to work at Capital One. A statistics and data science major at Yale, Katherine is helping develop Capital One’s machine learning program.
2019
Nico Brayton (Scholar, 2019) is majoring in mathematics at Yale. He spent the summer of 2023 hiking the Long Trail in his home state of Vermont. The trail runs 273 miles from the Massachusetts border to the Quebec border. Nico also studied Russian in an eight-week immersion program at the Middlebury Language School.
AJ Camacho (Senator, 2019) reports, “I’m writing a biography of the Reverend Claude Jeter, an American singer whose music inspired artists from Creedence Clearwater Revival to the Grateful Dead, from Aretha Franklin to Paul Simon. Jeter held a profound Christian faith, but his life included many contradictions. I hope to offer an accessible read for anyone looking to understand this progenitor of pop, country, folk, and rock music.”
Nathaniel Fernandes (Senator, 2019) has returned from studying abroad in Australia and New Zealand. He writes, “I learned about sustainable development from the Maori people and even snorkeled with sharks in the Great Barrier Reef!”
Katherine McPhie (Scholar, 2019) has returned to Harvard after spending a year and a half as a missionary in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Katherine explains, “A significant (but optional) rite of passage in my faith is for young people to put their educational and professional aspirations on pause to dedicate themselves to service of God and their fellow man as full-time missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” Reflecting on the impact of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, she says, “The wounds of decades of turmoil and strife are very real.”
Divya Mehrish (Senator, 2019) writes, “I am returning to Morgan Stanley as a sales and trading summer analyst within the Fixed Income Division. I also am a poet and was recently nominated for the Pushcart Prize.”
2020
Samantha Krulik (Senator, 2020) will work for JPMorgan after graduating from New York University in the spring. She also shares that she will soon begin pursuing her master’s degree in accounting.
Mia Santos (Senator, 2020) tells us, “I’m currently interning at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona as an actuarial intern in provider reimbursement. I will graduate from college a year early and will pursue a master’s degree in actuarial science at Arizona State University in the fall of 2024.”
Wade Wahlig (Scholar, 2020) is studying mechanical engineering at Yale. This past summer, he interned in manufacturing engineering at Tesla’s brand-new Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. He designed, prototyped, and fabricated fixtures to support production of Tesla’s Model 3/Y.
2021
Matthew Gilbert (Scholar, 2021) has leveraged his passion for ornithology as a student researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. His research focused on grassland bird species whose populations have declined significantly in recent decades. Matthew writes, “I conducted surveys, monitored nests, and banded fledglings to understand how delayed mowing can improve both breeding success of pairs and foraging habitat preceding their migration.”
Vasumathi Venkat (Senator, 2021) is studying electrical and computer engineering at Princeton University. Over the summer, she conducted research at the University of West Attica’s TelSiP Laboratory in Greece. She reports, “I spent two months working on signature data acquisition and writing a paper for conference and journal submission. I also was able to travel from Athens to Santorini, Mykonos, Aegina, Delphi, and Epidaurus.”
2022
Hannah Guan (Scholar, 2022) has begun her career at Harvard. She writes, “I just started as associate director of programming for Harvard WECode, which hosts the largest student-run women-in-tech conference in the world. Currently, I’m working to recruit speakers/panelists for our 2024 conference. I’m also an analyst for the Charles River Economics Labs, and I’m working on a project with the D.C. Department of Human Services.”
Evan Lu (Senator, 2022) reports, “I received the honor of 2023 Pennsylvania Journalist of the Year for my work with the Spoke, Conestoga High School’s student-run newspaper.”
Yugeshwar Muralidhar (Senator, 2022) became a National Merit Scholar at Forsyth Central High School in Georgia. He has begun his studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where he was named a John B. Ervin Scholar. Ervin Scholars receive full-tuition scholarships in recognition of academic excellence, leadership, community service, and diversity.
Anissa Patel (Senator, 2022) writes, “I received the Robert W. Woodruff Scholarship (a full-ride scholarship) from Emory University.”
Brooke Stanley (Senator, 2022) was named a 2023 Coca-Cola Scholar. The scholarship recognizes high school students for academic excellence, leadership, and service. Brooke is studying biomolecular and chemical engineering at Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Tucker Willenborg (Senator, 2022) is a freshman at Duke University. He writes, “I monetized one of my apps (Mahjong 4 Friends) earlier this year. It is currently profitable, with around one million games played monthly. I am looking forward to building more apps and creating content to teach others about app development.”
2023
Maximilian Belyantsev (Senator, 2023) became a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship this fall. He also published a book, From My Mind to Yours.
Ariel Fader (Senator, 2023) also was named a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship. In addition, she spoke at Ohio Tech Day, Cincinnati’s Women in IT Conference, and Lights On Afterschool Kentucky.
John McPhie (Scholar, 2023) took a break from working on his college applications to write, “I recently competed in a piano competition (the Bach Festival Complete Works Audition) and performed at Carnegie Hall.”
Navin Ramesh (Senator, 2023) was recently named a finalist for the Cameron Impact Scholarship and a semifinalist for the Coca-Cola Scholarship and the National Merit Scholarship. In September, he represented the Sudanese American Medical Association (SAMA) as a presenter at the global conference for Project ECHO, which brings cutting-edge medical care around the world. Navin writes that he presented on the Trauma ECHO initiative, which SAMA launched in response to the civil war in Sudan.
Samuel Warman (Senator, 2023) writes, “My not-for-profit organization, Reframe, recently began a new partnership with the Youth Leadership Initiative at the University of Virginia to create an accessible constitutional curriculum for educators around the country.”
1890 Society
Caleb Brown has been working as a 911 dispatcher—one of fifteen FAA-certified 911 flight controllers in the country.
David Costello writes, “I am currently applying to the PhD program in applied mathematics at Arizona State University in order to work on building models for mathematics that are applicable to subjects in the humanities, specifically textual criticism of the Greek New Testament.”
Justin Marwad reports, “I just started my PhD in computer science and cybersecurity at University of Massachusetts Lowell. I will be focusing on creating systems to enable any K-12 or newer computer science/cybersecurity student to understand the field’s most difficult concepts in a more robust way.”
Josiah Sullivan is a freshman at Clemson University. He has become a writer for the Clemson Tiger, a student-run newspaper. He tells us, “I have published multiple articles of national interest and would love to share!” In October, he covered a presidential forum featuring former vice president Mike Pence.
Paul Wuller is studying at Benedictine College. He writes, “I am a Constitutional Fellow, competing in moot court, and a member of the Student Government Administration.”