Alma Cooper M.S. ’25, a Knight-Hennessy scholar and an aspiring data scientist, just added another title to her name: Miss USA. From studying food insecurity to sparkling on stage, Cooper exemplifies that brilliance and beauty can go hand in hand.
Winning Miss USA on Aug. 4 was a moment of empowerment for Cooper, whose family underwent numerous challenges on their educational journeys. Those around her couldn’t help but feel overjoyed for her.
“I always thought…who wouldn’t love Alma? And I knew the judges would see that,” said fellow Knight-Hennessy scholar Jocelyn Ricard, a second-year Ph.D. student in neuroscience.
As Cooper moves onto the Miss Universe stage in the next few months, she hopes to inspire many young women around the world to believe in themselves. By taking a chance on herself, Cooper said that she lives by the motto, “The greatest things in life lie on the other side of fear.”
Cooper said that she is continually inspired by her mom, who worked as a migrant farmer in the beet fields of Idaho starting at the age of six. Despite suffering food insecurity, Cooper’s mom continued to work arduously throughout her upbringing and eventually earned a Division I track scholarship. Her mom’s hardships fuel her to better understand food insecurity and make an impact in communities, Cooper said. Cooper’s mom, who competed in the Miss America system herself, also helped spark Cooper’s pageant dream.
“Whatever it is that you’re truly after, whatever dream or ambition or goal, it’s never out of reach,” Cooper said.
Before Stanford, Cooper graduated in the top five percent of her class at West Point. Currently, she is a part of the highly selective Knight-Hennessy scholarship program, which aims to cultivate multidisciplinary leaders and offers scholars up to three years of funding for graduate studies.
Cooper finds deep fulfillment in her studies. Her priority is to complete and earn her master’s degree in data science. Being at Stanford feels like a full-circle moment from her time at West Point, where she was inspired by Stanford nutrition professors in her efforts to study how to mitigate food insecurity.
“I remember reading papers by Dr. Christopher Gardner and Dr. Cate Ward while I was an undergrad at West Point doing my bachelor’s in mathematical science,” Cooper said. “To even work with them already is a feat in and of itself,” Cooper said.
Cooper’s time at Stanford has been a extremely gratifying, she said. Cooper has found incredible opportunities to define who she is and to explore her interests, such as trying cheerleading for the first time.
“Putting myself in new environments and giving myself the opportunity to learn and grow has been so beautiful in a place like Stanford,” Cooper said.
Her cohort within the Knight-Hennessy program has allowed her to find a strong sense of community. Cooper said that her friends have been a foundation of support and that her hard work doesn’t go unnoticed, especially by them.
“She’s incredibly humble about her accomplishments and how amazing she is, and I really admire the way she treats everyone with respect, regardless of their relationship with her,” fellow Knight-Hennessy scholar Johnny Powell M.D. ‘27 said.