Student Spotlight

Urwa Faraz Malik
Engineering Science Major
2026 Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship Semifinalist  

Urwa Faraz Malik ’26 came to the United States in 2024 from Pakistan and lives in Brooklyn. The engineering science major plans to pursue mechanical engineering after graduating this spring. “Growing up near an airport in Pakistan, I was fascinated by airplanes and always wondered how something made of metal could lift into the sky. That curiosity evolved into a deeper interest in physics and mechanics,” she said. “Mechanical engineering will allow me to understand how machines work and design systems that solve real-world problems.”

Urwa is a Kingsborough Student Ambassador, enrolled in the Honors Program, a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, and a student in the CUNY Research Scholars Program (CRSP), where she is researching how artificial intelligence affects spatial memory.

On the same day she found out she was a Cooke semifinalist, Urwa also learned she had been accepted into Cornell University’s National Science Foundation-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), a 10-week summer program.

“Being named a semifinalist represents recognition of the hard work and determination it took to continue my education after immigrating to the United States,” she said. “When I received the email from Jack Kent Cooke and my acceptance to the Cornell program on the same day, it was an emotional moment. I was over the moon, you can say.”

She plans to apply to Cornell, Columbia or Yale and eventually work with organizations like NASA.

 

 

Urwa Faraz Malik | Engineering Science Major