Alumni Spotlights are Q&A's with former Brandeis student-athletes, across a myriad of disciplines, as they reflect on their Brandeis experience and how it has shaped their lives today.
Name: Carley Cooke '15
Sport: Women's Tennis
Current job: Legal Associate, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, New York, NY
A native of California, Carley Cooke joined the Brandeis Women's Tennis team in 2011-12 and made an immediate impact with the Judges. She earned the No. 1 spot in singles and doubles from the start of her career,earning UAA Rookie of the Year honors. Cooke went on to make three appearances at the NCAA Division III Championships, twice in singles and once in doubles. As a junior, she earned Brandeis's first-ever win at the NCAA Championships for women's tennis. Cooke will be inducted into the Brandeis Hall of Fame this Homecoming Weekend.
Since graduating from Brandeis in 2015 with a B.A.in psychology with minors in English and International and Global Studies, Cooke has earned her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. In 2019, she interned with Steven Gold, Magistrate Judge in the US District Court, Eastern District of New York. Cooke has worked at the firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, in mergers and acquisitions since October of 2021, and she passed the bar in 2022. She is also involved with the Best Friends Animal Society in New York and served as Brooklyn Law School's Lawyers Without Borders chapter vice president.
What drew you to Brandeis in the first place?
I was born and raised in California, it's where my entire family lived and continues to live. I was really looking for a big change, and targeted my general college search to the Boston area. I also knew for a fact that I wanted to play tennis in college. Those two factors really drove my search. I was looking at both Division I and Division III schools in and around Boston. I came out for a week with my mom to tour schools and meet coaches. [Former] Coach [Ben] Lamanna reached out and personally invited me to visit campus. We made the trip out and met with him and were really impressed with him and the campus overall. What really sealed the deal for me was my recruiting weekend trip the following September of my senior year of high school. Spending the whole weekend with those women's and men's teams really made me feel like I fit in, and I saw myself as part of the community overall. So I canceled all of my other recruiting trips and applied early decision. It was that perfect of a fit.
When did you start playing tennis?
I started around age 6 or 7. Really, really young. I was also a very competitive soccer player growing up, so I simultaneously developed in both the soccer and tennis spaces from a really early age. I am embarrassed to admit that, until I got to New England, I didn't realize that indoor tennis was a necessity! I had never played indoor tennis before the age of 18.
Describe your overall experience as a student-athlete. What does it mean to you now/what did it mean to you while you were an undergraduate?
It's kind of a difficult question, because being on the tennis team really was everything to me when I was in school. Obviously Brandeis is an incredible academic institution, but I will admit that I was sometimes more focused on the tennis team than my classes! But being part of the team meant that I had an incredible sense of community around me. We were a close-knit team, especially my first year when there were only 10 of us on the women's team. We immediately became fast friends and I had a place where I fit from Day One, from the moment I set foot on campus.
A big personal takeaway that took from my time on campus was that tennis gave me a sense of confidence and self-identity. Coming into college from such a competitive tennis place like Southern California I didn't realize understand how advanced my skill set was and what I had to bring to the table on the East Coast. Starting my first year, I knew that I had a lot to offer, not only as an individual athlete, but in the context of the overall team.
I've always been an extremely competitive person, so it was the perfect outlet for me to express that side of myself, as well as my leadership skills. To this day, I find myself in leadership roles, and that started right from my freshman year. As the number one player from the start, I knew that I had the respect of my teammates, and I made sure it was mutual. I would have done everything to help improve the team and the culture and be the best that we could.
A lot tennis players don't always have a team aspect to their game. Is that something that grew in college?
Definitely true for me. It helped me that I was on a competitive soccer team until my sophomore year of high school, which is when I decided to devote my entire time to tennis. So I had that team background from a different sport, but in terms of tennis, I had never been on a team like that before. With collegiate tennis, it's such a nice balance between individual and team. Especially for me, I'm a very independent person, but at the same time, I'm really a team player, so I appreciate having support around me and being able to give that support back.
How did your time as a student and student-athlete at Brandeis prepare you for your career and life after college?
The work ethic that I developed in college devoting myself to the tennis team extends now to my legal career. I definitely feel that there are similarities in the passion that I had for tennis at the time in college has now morphed into a passion for the job I do now as a mergers and acquisitions attorney. The stuff I work on is high stakes and high pressure, but I find the work ethic that I developed in college really translates well.
Do you have any advice for current or future Brandeis Student-Athletes?
I would advise them not to put so much pressure on themselves. I know that Brandeis student-athletes can really be "Type A", really intense and driven and impressive people. It's not an easy time to graduate from college and find jobs and I know that it can be a struggle in college to find your own place, make sure that your being enough, doing enough to be competitive in a future career. And I know that's really important, but I think there are more important things like your own mental health, your relationships, those things have to be as much of a priority as school and sports.
Sports is a really nice marriage of all of that, in that you have your team that you can rely on and have fun light times with, but at the same time, it's also intense and everyone can get competitive at times.
It's all about balance. Something that I've learned coming out of law school is that it's OK to take pressure off myself, and that I am doing enough. Looking back, I wish I had that perspective in college, I would have been a better athlete because of that.
How do you keep in touch with any of your former Brandeis teammates?
A couple of them live in New York City, very close to me. I'm actually going to my teammate Simone [Vandroff '15] bachelorette party tomorrow in Colorado! But we keep in touch the usual ways by phone and social media and we make the effort to see each other in person too!
Looking back on your tennis career at Brandeis, do you have any one or two moments that you look back on and cherish?
It might sound kind of funny, but the things I look back on most are the day-to-day practices as a team. Just the routine of walking down the gym with my friends, getting my equipment and getting ready to hit, what seemed at the time like mundane moments, now to me are the most special to me because they were the most personally enriching and fulfilling. But in terms of competition, my freshman year, we went on a California trip and went 5-0, didn't lose a single match to competitive LA teams and jumped up 20 spots in the national rankings. And I'm forever grateful to have been able to go to nationals with coach Lamanna and [coach] Pauri [Pandian] and with my doubles partner Faith Broderick '12, was amazing.
What personal or professional accomplishments are you most proud of since you graduated?
Passing the bar and getting a position at one of the top law firms in the world is probably my number one. I'm at a firm called Fried Frank, in New York, right by Wall Street. I get to work on high-stakes international transactions that are really exciting and really dynamic.
Also in law school, something that I will always be extremely proud of, I took a huge corporation class in the Fall of my second year, with about 100 students in it, and at the end of that year, I got an award for achieving the highest grade in the class. That will probably be my forever best accomplishment, in addition to my All-America honors.
