In September of 2019, senior Allison Souimaniphanh applied for the Coca-Cola Scholar Foundation scholarship and when the results came in December, emotions soared high.
“At first glance I hadn’t thought it was even possible that I would be considered for a semifinalist position,” Souimaniphanh said. ”Honestly, I felt like it was a fake email, one of those spam messages that just appear legitimate.”
The Coca-Cola Scholar Foundation is a program that invests in stunning high school seniors, specifically ones who exhibit leadership and who’ve made a big impact on their community. Each year, the foundation selects 150 scholars and grants them each a $20,000 scholarship.
With 93,000 applicants nationally, only 1,928 advanced to semi-finals.
“I chose this [scholarship] because Phase I of the application was community service centric, so I was able to document all of the work I have done within the past few years through Student Council,” said Souimaniphanh.
Allison is currently the Student Council Secretary which gave her an advantage in the scholarship application because, as Souimaniphanh explained, “StuCo gave me the resources I needed to undertake the projects I have.”
As a future medical student, this scholarship could go a long way and help Souimaniphanh and her family with her educational career.
Souimaniphanh is currently working on Phase 2 of the application process.