Coca-Cola Beverages Florida has recognized 11 Florida high school seniors who have been named 2022 Coca-Cola Scholars and will each receive a $20,000 college scholarship.
The program, led by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, awarded scholarships to 150 high school seniors across the country based on their academic excellence, leadership and service demonstrated in school and community activities. The three-part selection process had an initial pool of more than 68,000 applications.
The 2022 Florida recipients are:
- Lauren Bartel – Gulliver Preparatory School
- Cecilia Bodon – Freedom High School
- Gabriel Gerig – Inlet Grove Community High School
- Lena Kalandjian – North Broward Preparatory School
- Denny Lu – Manatee High School
- Bernadette Nwokeji – Riverview High School
- Florence Onyiuke – Seminole High School
- Ellie Reyna – Mast Academy
- Daniel Solomon – Miami Palmetto Senior High School
- Miles Wang – Alexander W Dreyfoos School of The Arts
- Maxwell Wenzel – Tampa Preparatory School
The Coca-Cola Scholars Program is the largest corporate-sponsored, achievement-based scholarship program in the U.S. With the addition of the 2022 class, the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation will have provided more than 6,600 Coke Scholars nationwide with over $78 million in scholarships over the course of 34 years.
“We believe that identifying these young leaders throughout the country and encouraging their passion for serving others not only empowers the students but also lifts up those around them,” said Jane Hale Hopkins, president of the foundation. “The Coca-Cola system is dedicated to giving back to the communities they serve and the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation is proud to be a part of that commitment.”
In addition to receiving college scholarships, those students selected as Coca-Cola Scholars will be welcomed into a growing family of alumni that have become a force for positive change in the world. Recent initiatives include a podcast called The SIP and the sixth year of a coaching program that partners seasoned alumni with first-year Scholars as they transition to college. Every five years, all alumni are invited to a Coca-Cola Scholars Leadership Summit.
For more information, visit coca-colascholarsfoundation.org.
