Each spring, we celebrate the conclusion of the academic year by asking graduating students to share highlights from their time at Cooper and their plans for the future. We gathered a selection of responses from these soon-to-be-graduates, representing all three schools of The Cooper Union.

Which course or faculty member had the biggest impact on your time at Cooper and why?

Laela Baker AR’24: The faculty member who made the biggest and most significant impact on me was Diana Agrest in Design IV. She helped me hone my thought process and think for myself rather than just following a prompt or assignment. Her impact stretched far beyond the confines of the studio, shaping not just my understanding of architecture and the city, but also my approach to problem solving, creativity, and research.

Yuan Meng AR’24: If I had to pick one, then I would say it’s Nima Javidi in the second-year design studio. I think he really shaped my way of approaching design and laid the groundwork for my geometric, formal, and spatial thinking in architecture.

Simon Garb A’24: Jennifer Packer was one of the people I took the most cues from in terms of painting and what it could do even before she came to Cooper, so doing an independent study with her was really impactful for my practice. It meant we could really get down to what’s at stake in painting and the issues I wanted to deal with when making objects and images.

Sebastian Maseri A’24: I don’t think there is a specific course that has had the biggest impact on my time. The most impactful thing at Cooper has been listening and learning from my peers.

Thomas Coor EE’24: Professor Sam Keene's Generative Machine Learning for Architects, which I took in my last semester, was my playground for building exciting, tangible, and interactive projects using all the skills I had learned at Cooper. The class is interdisciplinary, taking students from all three schools equally, and this unique mix allowed us to make some of the best projects I've seen at Cooper. We worked together, combining our perspectives to produce work that was far beyond the sum of our skills.

Jake Sigman CE’24: Professor Cosmas Tzavelis has been a beacon of guidance and support not just for me, but for the entire department. His unwavering dedication to the student body has made my experience at The Cooper Union nothing short of amazing and memorable.

Kyle Wong ChE’24: Process Simulation (taught by Professor James Stevenson) was one of the most fun classes I’ve taken at Cooper, and that was by far the most useful and interesting course for me in the chemical engineering curriculum. This course showcases a variety of chemical engineering (ChE) applications for Python programming ranging from process modeling to molecular property prediction, and the skills I learned in that class are applicable to data analysis even outside of ChE. Professor Stevenson, in spite of teaching only a couple of classes at Cooper as an adjunct, always made sure to create a welcoming and engaging classroom environment. As a Cooper ChE alumnus, Professor Stevenson was always empathetic to our struggles and knew exactly how to make each class something to look forward to.

Sabrina Zhou ChE’24: I am a hands-on learner, so the two courses I enjoyed the most by far were Biomaterials and Drug Delivery because of their laboratory portions and the focus that the courses had on learning skills beyond just listening to lectures, including reading scientific papers and verbally disseminating information.
 

What are you most proud of from your time at Cooper?

Laela Baker AR’24: Besides academics and work I have done, my proudest time was being able to help better the school and all the effort I put into representing the school on the student council. Over the five years I was here, I am so proud of myself and the other representatives who pushed and pushed to get our agenda to make the school a better place for the students.

Yuan Meng AR’24: I’m proud of becoming a more confident person and being surrounded by great people.

Thomas Coor EE’24: In my last year, I was selected as a finalist for the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, the biggest competition of its kind, for my Lorentz Violin, a project I had been working on at Cooper for the previous three semesters. I remember first hearing about the competition in high school and thinking it would be a great stretch goal to shoot for in college. When I got there, I was the youngest of the ten competitors, and the only without a more advanced degree. The competition is in the form of a concert, where you are paired with an Atlanta-based musician, and you write a song together. Preparing for the competition was the most difficult thing I ever did while at Cooper, but it was well worth every moment.

Jake Sigman CE’24: Cooper is all about pushing the boundaries. I have accomplished so much that I would not have been able to do otherwise, but the work that I am most proud of was done outside of my major, in a Software Engineering class. In this course, I, alongside three other members of a group, designed and distributed a full-stack piece of software.

Kyle Wong ChE’24: There are so many technical answers I could give to this question, ranging from my biochar research with Professor Amanda Simson to my process internship at ACME Smoked Fish under a Cooper ChE alumna. But I am most proud of the community that I and the rest of ChE’24 built at this school, and the shift that we made towards promoting more food science-related events and opportunities at Cooper.

Sabrina Zhou ChE’24: I'm proudest of both my research in 3D-printed flexible wrist braces, where we've sent out a successful working prototype to our end-user, and of my time as a student tech in the AACE Lab. It's an incredibly welcoming and creative space, and I'm proud of all the projects I've made and the skills I've learned working there.

Simon Garb A’24: I think what I’m most proud of here has been having been able to participate in this community. The most important knowledge I’ve gained around important issues has been built communally here at Cooper from climate justice to anti-racism to the role of the artist in times of crisis. The things I’ll carry with me into the future have been developed through conversation and critique. I’m just happy I got to be in the room.

Sebastian Maseri A’24: The thing I am most proud of from my time at Cooper is the way I have become more open-minded and curious about the world while maintaining a level of criticality.
 

What are your immediate plans after graduation? Long-term plans?

Laela Baker AR’24: After graduation, starting in July, I will be going to work at Turner Construction here in New York City as an engineer assistant/assistant estimator. After working there for a few years, I plan to open a practice with my partner, Michael Sluchevsky AR’23.

Yuan Meng AR’24: I’m going to work in the city for one to two years and think of going to graduate school. No long term plans yet.

Simon Garb A’24: In the short term, I care most about maintaining my studio practice, so if that means waiting tables, I’m totally cool with that. In the long term my truest goal is to somehow make my life revolve around climate justice. I’d like to make sustainability an intrinsic part of my day to day.

Sebastian Maseri A’24: I don’t have any immediate plans after graduation. Generally, my plans are to do everything I can to continue to make the things I want to make. For a job, I am interested in education in the arts.

Thomas Coor EE’24: I'm excited for a co-op with the Loudspeaker Research Group at Bose in Boston, but not before backpacking through northern Europe for a few weeks! After all that, I'll be coming back to Cooper for a master’s degree! I am certain that I will never stop making things, from musical instruments to circuit boards, and am only excited for what things lie ahead!

Jake Sigman CE’24: After graduation, I will be continuing my education, hoping to obtain a master's degree in transportation systems. While doing so, I will be working as a full-time traffic engineer at a large civil engineering firm.

Kyle Wong ChE’24: I pursued a ChE degree at Cooper with the hope of working in food manufacturing someday. I plan to attend the University of Maine (UMaine) for their food science and human nutrition master’s program this Fall. I am looking forward to working at the Seafood Lab at UMaine for seafood sustainability research.

Sabrina Zhou ChE’24: I'm pursuing a master’s in bioengineering at Johns Hopkins University, where I will be identifying and then creating a medical device to address a global health need. In my career, I hope to research and develop medical devices.