Cognella Awards Three Students with $1,000 Academic Scholarships

Through the Cognella Cares Student Scholarship Program, Cognella recognizes three students for writing personal essays on contemporary topics

San Diego, CA – November 6, 2024 – Today Cognella announced the Fall 2024 winners of the Cognella Cares Student Scholarship Program: Maggie Moore of Middle Tennessee State University; Khari Jones of Morehouse College; and Lauren Collins of University of Wisconsin – Madison.

The Cognella Cares Student Scholarship Program was established in 2018 and provides students with a platform to speak on current issues that matter to them, highlight experiences that are unique to higher education, and share ideas that can inspire social, political, and intellectual change.

For Fall 2024, Cognella asked students to write essays on the relevant and timely topics of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on society and education; the cost of higher education; and remote learning and work environments. The judging panel selected one winning essay per topic, and Cognella has awarded each student a $1,000 academic scholarship.

“Over 30 years ago, I founded Cognella from my dorm room at the University of California, San Diego,” said Bassim Hamadeh, Cognella Founder and CEO. “Inspired by my own experiences with high textbook prices, I put on my thinking cap and set out to do things a little differently in the academic publishing space. The Cognella Cares Student Scholarship Program invites students to do the same—to consider contemporary, real-world issues and determine ways they can be confronted or improved. We’re proud to honor students’ thought leadership and encourage them to continue their studies.”

“Reading the submissions for the Cognella Cares Student Scholarship Program is a personal highlight each year,” said Carrie Baarns, Cognella Revisions and Author Care Manager and the administrator of the scholarship program. “We encourage students to draw from personal experiences, and it’s both fascinating and inspiring to see the unique and often surprising ways they approach complex issues. The variety of perspectives they share—shaped by their own journeys—showcases their emerging thought leadership within their academic fields and communities.”

Maggie Moore’s essay on AI and its impact on society and education is an equally humorous and poignant meditation on sacrificing the journey of discovery for quick results. The essay explores the dying art of the rabbit hole, Maggie’s fear that AI’s word choices reflect her own writing quirks, and the fallacies and errors they’ve experienced in their own experimentation and observation of AI use.

In his essay on the cost of higher education, Khari Jones posits that “the cost of higher education is not just a financial barrier; it is a social justice issue.” He shares his personal experience with losing financial assistance without notice and how it revealed the systemic issues related to the price of higher education, especially for students from marginalized communities or low-income backgrounds.

Lauren Collins’s essay on remote learning and work environments shares her experience working as a remote English as a Second Language (ESL) tutor for preschool children in China. She shares how the experience demonstrated the power of remote education and how it can make education more accessible and inclusive on a global level.

Read the award-winning essays: https://cognella.com/company-hosted-awards/student-scholarship-program/

About Cognella®
Cognella® is redefining academic publishing by creating teacher-driven, student-centric higher education course materials in print and digital formats under three imprints: Cognella® Academic Publishing, Cognella® Custom, and Cognella® Active Learning. Cognella also publishes engaging nonfiction titles featuring modern perspectives as Cognella® Press. Learn more at www.cognella.com.

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Natalie Piccotti
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