Inventive, Award-winning Scholar and Student Researcher Aims for Sky

Six students from Georgia State University’s Perimeter College have been named semifinalists for the 2025 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 467 individuals selected from more than 1,600 applicants attending 212 community colleges in 43 states, plus Washington, D.C., and the Northern Mariana Islands. The following is a profile of one of Perimeter’s semifinalists.

CLARKSTON, Ga.— By the time she was a preteen, a career in engineering was already on Rakeb Tesfassellasie’s mind.

“I was inspired by my older sister who is in aerospace engineering,” she said.

Although Rakeb wanted to follow the same path, she wasn’t quite sure aerospace was for her.

But, her own affinity for the sciences—and early exposure to college through Perimeter’s dual enrollment program—helped form her idea of the right engineering fit.

At Perimeter, she learned about the schools’s Regents Engineering Pathway (REP) program. She transferred from REP to Georgia Tech, where she started in the spring of 2025 and is studying in the dual bachelor/master’s program for industrial engineering. Her sister also attends Georgia Tech.

“I am particularly eager to engage in research at Georgia Tech on sustainable supply chains and manufacturing processes,” she said.

An Honors College student while at Perimeter, she worked toward that goal through involvement in several STEM projects. Under the direction of Mathematics Engineering Science (MESA) faculty advisor Dr. Janna Blum, Rakeb worked with fellow Jack Kent Cooke semifinalist and biology student Shalom Ejiwunmi, along with Perimeter student Sophia Bereket to design a smaller Pap smear speculum, the instrument used to collect cervical cells for cancer detection.

The trio submitted their design to the 2024 Community College Innovation Challenge and won first place. They have since formed an LLC and filed for a provisional patent of their idea.

“We are currently working to find investors and bring our idea to life,” Rakeb added.

As a Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Program (LSAMP) scholar at Perimeter, Rakeb also worked with biology professor Mark Graves and Diane LaHaise on researching building design and windows and their impact on migrating bird deaths. (Using dotted glass helps deter birds from smashing into the windows, she said.)  Rakeb studied the window design of Alpharetta Campus for her project and is continuing her research outside of LSAMP.

In the summer of 2024, Rakeb traveled to Athens, Texas, on a three-month summer internship with Schneider Electric in logistics. The company offered her an extended internship into the fall working in a master data co-op role.

“My time with Schneider was incredibly rewarding, and I cherish the connections I made along the way,” she said, noting that she eventually wants to work in the environmental sector.

This is Rakeb’s second year as a Cooke scholarship semifinalist. Winning the award would open more opportunities and help with finances, she said.

“With industrial engineering expertise, I’m eager to lead the way in incorporating eco-friendly practices and sustainable resources in various industries.”

The Cooke Foundation will announce its scholarship winners in May.

Original story by Rebecca Rakoczy

Updates by Kysa Anderson Daniels

Photo by Bill Roa