Perimeter College Student Researcher Considered for Top Scholarship

Eight students from Georgia State University’s Perimeter College have been named semifinalists for the 2024 Jack 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. The semifinalists, all Perimeter Honors College students working toward their associate 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.

DUNWOODY, Ga.—High achievement is familiar territory for Rafaela Berry. As a child growing up in South America, she learned to read in pre-k, then skipped a grade when she was five.

At 26, the Perimeter College scholar and researcher has maintained that momentum and is thrilled to be among the strongest contenders for the Jack Kent Cooke award—one of the country’s most prestigious scholarships.

Berry was born to teen parents and grew up with extended family in Goiania, Brazil, attending the private schools where her mom worked. She moved with her family to the United States nine years ago, because her parents were seeking a better living. To help make ends meet, Berry took on various jobs when first coming to the U.S.

“I cleaned houses, took care of babies, did office work, was a Brazilian steak house bus girl…anything that a regular immigrant would do—I did everything,” Berry said, while also noting that she still helps her mom clean homes when she doesn’t have classes.

But the urge to attend college kept nagging, although by the time she enrolled at Perimeter, she’d shifted her study focus.

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a marine biologist, but that went out the window as soon as I had my first biology class,” she said, laughing.

Instead, Berry has turned her attention to social work, which she studies at Perimeter. She’s not exactly sure what path she’ll take professionally but is leaning toward the fusion of biological neuroscience and psychology and their effect on human behavior.

At Perimeter, she has gotten experience as a student researcher, comparing the Satanic Panic phenomenon that swept across the United States and other parts of the world in the ‘80s to the current “moral panic” regarding the transgender community. Berry presented her research at the Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference and Georgia Collegiate Honors Council Conference this year. In April, her research led to winning Perimeter’s STAR Award for Outstanding Honors College student.

Berry also finds time to advocate for transgender rights and for the education of incarcerated individuals.

This May, Berry will study abroad in Greece and also work as an “Atlas Student,” a leadership position offered to one student for each Georgia State University study abroad program.

If this weren’t enough, Berry and her husband Trae launched a music production company a few years ago. “He does most of the work – I do the taxes and marketing,” she said.

Winning the Jack Kent Cooke award, Berry said, will put her one step closer to her goal to helping others through social work.

“I am very optimistic about my future,” she said.

“I'm not optimistic that I will make lots of money or have an easy life or career, but since coming back to school, I have been consistently making decisions solely based on what I want to do and what I think will be best for me.”

Berry will graduate from Perimeter as a research scholar this May with plans to continue her studies at either Georgia State’s Atlanta Campus or Emory University.

The Cooke Foundation will announce its 2024 winners later this spring.

Story by Kysa Anderson Daniels

Photo by Bill Roa