Q&A: Local Ivy Tech grad Kerri Cokeley picked as top alumna

By TARA HETTINGER
Tara.Hettinger@newsandtribune.com

December 19, 2008 08:32 pm

— When she graduated from Jeffersonville High School in 1996, Kerri Cokeley had a full four-year college scholarship through 21st Century Scholars.
Instead of even thinking of going to college, she just went to work. It was there her life took a turn after her boss encouraged her to go back to school to take a few classes.
“Ivy Tech was a turning point in my life,” Cokeley said of attending the Sellersburg campus. “Ivy Tech is the place where I learned my potential as a person, when I began to dream and see that I could really make a difference.”
She went on to earn her master’s degree in business administration from Indiana University Southeast.
Now, she works for Metro United Way in Southern Indiana as an associate director of community building. She also spends her free time volunteering.
Her success earned her the ranking of top alumna from Ivy Tech in Sellersburg.
A panel of judges recently picked Cokeley out of all the Ivy Tech campuses’ top alumni as the statewide Ivy Tech Community College Distinguished Alumnus of 2008. Her competitors included corporate vice presidents, government leaders and more.
Cokeley recently discussed winning the award, her interests and more in an interview with The Evening News and The Tribune as part of its weekly Q&A series.
QUESTION: What did you think when you heard you were named as one of Ivy Tech’s distinguished alumni?
KERRI COKELEY: I was really excited when I found out that I received the award from Ivy Tech in Sellersburg. I was very proud. When I found out about the statewide award, I was very surprised. Because I’m only five years out from my education and I knew other alumni had been in their careers longer.
Q: Why did you choose to go back to school?
COKELEY: I chose to go to school to take some math classes to help me in my job [at an engineering firm].
Q: Was college something that many people in your family pursued?
COKELEY: I had a full four-year scholarship to go to college right out of school but I didn’t use it. Everyone was just so happy that I graduated high school. We didn’t really talk about college.
Q: Why not?
COKELEY: I didn’t enjoy high school and nobody encouraged me to pursue higher education, so I didn’t.
Q: Did anyone help you get to where you are today?
COKELEY: I certainly did not get to where I am on my own. I had great teachers at Spring Hill Elementary. My first mentor was my boss at the engineering firm, HMB Professional Engineers. My teachers at Ivy Tech and IUS, specifically student affairs people at Ivy Tech and classmates [all helped].
Q: Did you ever imagine you’d be where you are at age 30?
COKELEY: Absolutely not. If you told me that before I would have laughed at you and said it was a joke. I didn’t know I was capable of accomplishing anything other than just getting by. I didn’t have a desire to do more than that either.
Q: What have you learned most from all of your experience?
COKELEY: It’s very important for each individual to understand that we all have the potential in us to achieve more than we can imagine. And that our friends and our family and our support groups can help lift us up to accomplish more than we ever dreamed was possible.
Q: Now, let’s get to know you. What’s your favorite food?
COKELEY: I love all food. I joke and say my favorite food is anything that ends in the word cake. I don’t know if I have a favorite. I just love food. I just have to do a lot of exercise to balance all that eating.
Q: Where’s your favorite place to go?
COKELEY: The beach.
Q: Most treasured object?
COKELEY: A necklace my grandmother gave me.
Q: Weekend routine?
COKELEY: I’m still establishing that. It used to be all homework. Now, my weekend routine is hanging out with the new guy I’m dating, reading this stack of books I’ve collected that I haven’t had a chance to get to while I was in school and cooking and eating.
Q: Guilty pleasure?
COKELEY: Food, expensive foods — like a nice medium-well steak and a glass of wine. And cake.
Q: Worst habit?
COKELEY: Nicorette gum. I’ve been on that stuff for years!
Q: What’s your perfect day?
COKELEY: Perfect day is coming to work and going home at the end of the day feeling like I accomplished something good.
Q: Any obsessions?
COKELEY: My calendar because I’m so busy managing so many different things I feel that I have to get done every day that I have to plan so far out in the future. My Outlook calendar and my Palm Pilot — I feel like I would go nuts if I didn’t have those two.
Q: What or who is your inspiration?
COKELEY: My friends and family are my inspiration.
Q: What’s your favorite rainy-day activity?
COKELEY: Playing in the rain.
Q: If you could meet anyone, who would it be and why?
COKELEY: I would say Edith Murley. She was a family neighbor and she raised me for the first five years of my life. She really raised my mom, too. She died when I was so young, I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye or ask her all the important things that I need to know in life. Certainly, she’s a big part of who I am today. She had such an influence on me. She was 76 when I was born. For a woman like that to raise a child like me, she certainly has some lessons I could learn from.
Q: What did you want to be when you were younger?
COKELEY: An architect.
Q: What can you not live without?
COKELEY: A car that runs good and gets me where I need to go and when I need to get there. And the ability to have transportation when I need it because there are many folks that don’t have that.
Q: What thing is always in your refrigerator?
COKELEY: High-protein boost.
Q: What is a random fact most people don’t know about you?
COKELEY: My middle name is Star.
Q: What’s your favorite animal?
COKELEY: My kitty cat named Shady, but I like all animals.

KERRI COKELEY
• AGE: 30
• LIVES: Louisville
• HOMETOWN: Jeffersonville
• FAMILY: Mom and dad, sister, two brothers, two nephews and a niece.
• JOB: Associate director of community building for Metro United Way in Southern Indiana
• HOBBIES: Last nine years going to school and completing at night (finished in August), volunteering and reading

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