During her time at King’s, Frances Cooke played volleyball for the Blue Devils, was a four-time Debra Deane Little and Robert Little Academic Scholar, and this year won the Gary MacLean Award for Outstanding Dedication and Commitment. From Hamilton, Ont., she is graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with combined honours in Contemporary Studies and Political Science.
What drew you to King’s?
My childhood best friend moved to Newfoundland in the third grade, and I fell in love with the Maritimes when I went out to visit him. I started looking into smaller schools on the East Coast and came across the Foundation Year Program (FYP), which really appealed to me because I love reading and writing more than anything. I came out here with my dad in my final year of high school to tour a few different campuses, but as soon as I stepped foot in the Quad, I knew King’s was the place for me—we cancelled the rest of our tours and spent the rest of the trip exploring Halifax.
As soon as I stepped foot in the Quad, I knew King’s was the place for me…
Was there a course, professor, reading requirement or experience that has had a lasting impact on you?
The professor who has had the biggest impact on me is definitely my thesis supervisor, Dr. Hamza Karam Ally. He’s actually the one who inspired me to go into the Contemporary Studies Program (CSP) in the first place—I had my Section 5 FYP tutorial with him and really enjoyed it, so when I saw that he was teaching the required second year doublet for CSP, that settled it. I’ve applied the thinkers and concepts that he introduced to me to pretty much every other class that I’ve taken in my degree. There’s an ongoing joke among a few of my CSP friends that every paper we write now ends up being a “Hamza paper” in some way. Even as I was answering this, one of them texted me, “I’m hitting the classic Edward Said mention in this assignment. Shoutout Hamza.”
I would also recommend the Memory, Politics, Place course in Berlin with Dr. Maria Euchner to every King’s student until I’m blue in the face. It was absolutely life-changing and one of the best months of my life. It brought me so much closer to the wonderful people in my program.
Some political science courses that I really enjoyed were Contemporary Security Studies with Dr. Laurence, Sport and Politics with Dr. Black, and Sex, Race, and the State with Dr. Denike.
How did your extracurricular endeavors enhance or shape your experience?
Volleyball has been a huge part of my King’s experience, and I’m incredibly grateful for my Blue Devils family for everything they’ve given me during my time here. I’ll remember winning the first women’s volleyball ACAA championship in King’s history for the rest of my life. I also really loved joining the Contemporary Studies Society in my final year, and I wish I had joined earlier! I would tell any future King’s student to get involved on campus as much as possible. The extracurriculars I was part of brought me so much joy and so many amazing people into my life.
