Grant Cokley '25

Grant Cokley '25
Major: Accounting and Finance
Involvements: Residence Hall Association, Student Affairs Student Advisory Board, LGBT Student Services Student Leader, IgnatianQ Conference Student Planning Team, Student Staff in Conference and Event Services, Finance Society, Black Student Union, Mock Trial

At Loyola Marymount University, Grant Cokley, a double major in accounting and finance from Baltimore, held leadership roles that transformed the student experience by enriching the residential living environment on the bluff and embodying what it means to be a student leader who empowers others to feel seen and heard.

Cokley describes their LMU student experience in one word: evolution. “LMU gave me the space and the environment to evolve into the person that I am meant to be today,” said Cokley. “It gave me so many different opportunities, experiences, challenges, and thought pieces. It really put me in a space to not only look at myself but also look at the world around me and experience that daily. I would be able to think about how I wanted to show up in the world and then also go out into the world and see how people view themselves and how they view me.”

Throughout the college search process, Cokley would read information about LMU and think it was another school on the East Coast. However, when the chance came to complete his college application, it was not until he got to the LMU-specific questions at the end that he realized LMU is located in the heart of West Los Angeles. And because they had always wanted the chance to go to California, they decided it was time for an adventure. With a sense of adventure, he came to LMU after wishing to experience new things outside of where he was moving from in North Carolina.

As the president of the Residence Hall Association (RHA), Cokley describes their experience with this program as the cornerstone of their experience at LMU. “I started with RHA during my first year at LMU. I served as the McKay Hall council president, and we had the largest board, and I won president of the year,” said Cokley. One of their favorite experiences at LMU was during their time as president of RHA, where they hosted Viva LMU in 2023, a welcome event for LMU’s newest students during orientation with over 1,300 students in attendance. “This was my first time hosting Viva LMU; it was the first time I could truly feel and see the impact I was having on campus,” said Cokley. “Because I came to LMU during COVID, this was not something I got to experience as a first-year student, but coming back two years later and hosting it. I watched students make new friends and fully experience what it is like to be on LMU’s campus and part of the community.”

Two years ago, Cokley got the opportunity to join an LMU cohort at St. Louis University to attend IgnatianQ, an annual conference hosted by a Jesuit institution to build community, foster spirituality, and affirm the humanity of LGBTQIA+ students. They described the experience as transformative, being in a community and spaces with people he could identify with. “I was able to relate to myself, and having this experience helped me understand myself much better because I was surrounded by people who were like me,” said Cokley. “I was able to pick apart those differences that I always felt. It clicked for our entire group that we were in a privileged space to be around people just like us, queer people and queer people of faith, and just be able to understand each other and have conversations.”

This past year, Cokley served as student leader on the planning committee for the IgnatianQ conference hosted on LMU’s campus, which saw the largest number of participants in the history of the conference. “I’ve never been in a space where all of my identities could be loved, cared for, and supported,” said Cokley. “It pushed me to create spaces like that on LMU’s campus so students could experience what I got to experience in St. Louis. Being surrounded by queer people of faith helped create the journey for me. No matter what was happening in the world at the time, just being able to put on the conference, you can still create these communities and these spaces for us to be supported and loved so we can enjoy our time on this Earth. There are so many different universities and campus communities that have been impacted from now on because of the IgnatianQ conference that we held because we talk about taking the experiences you have during the conference back to your own campus community.”

Last summer, Cokley went on a study abroad trip to Rome, Italy. It was his first time traveling out of the United States, and the first time anyone in his family had been abroad. “We walked the entirety of Rome,” said Cokley. “It feels like I am now connected to the world. To be in Italy and feel so in touch with culture and history, that’s not something I could get out of a book.”

For Cokley, his inspiration came from friends such as Tahjique Amoah ’25, a student they looked up to by watching how Amoah moved and connected with others on campus helped Cokley see a reflection of himself. Another student who served as a mentor for Cokley, Allesse Patterson, a senior during Cokley’s first year and who was a mentor for Cokley and some of their LMU peers. 

They summed up their experience as one of the students honored with speaking during LMU’s Lavender Grad Celebration. “We don’t just survive change,” said Cokley. “We are the change, and today, as we stand on this stage, we are celebrating everything that we are, everything we fought for, and everything we’re still becoming. I am proud to be a part of this community. Because we are proof that growth is beautiful, that curiosity is courageous, that uncertainty is holy, that we belong. Instead, we carve our paths, build our communities, and redefine what success, love, and identity mean in our own terms. Today is proof that we are here, valid, and worthy of every dream we chase.”

This summer, Cokley will be interning at KPMG Audit Services. In fall 2025, they will return to LMU to focus on a master’s degree in accounting in the LMU College of Business Administration and work as an audit associate.