Coca Cola Scholarship and Coca Cola School Grants
Grants Dept.
Coca Cola, a global brand name in the soft drink industry is also a provider of scholarships to many people around the world including the United States. Its scholarship programs in the United States are run through the Coca Cola scholars' foundation, a body designed specifically to organize the award of grants to deserving students in the U.S. The foundation awards grants to over 1,400 students and issues funding of at least $3,400,000 each year. The funding is done through two major programs, one for high school seniors and the other is for any student enrolled in an accredited two year college at the time of application.
The two programs are the Coca Cola all state community college scholarship
program and the Coca Cola scholars program.
Program requirements
Here is an overview of the requirements for each of the programs:
Coca Cola all state community college programs:
As I mentioned earlier, this program is designed to award financial aid to students. The awards are done on a state basis. The students that score highest from each state will be given $2,000 and named new century scholars, the next 50 students nationwide will get $1,500 and be named gold scholars, 50 more students will be named silver scholars and will get $1,250, while another 50 will be named bronze scholars and get $1,000. Every scholar who receives cash awards will also be presented with special medallions and have their names listed in an Issue of USA TODAY newspaper. A total of 350 students are presented with scholarships of varying amounts each year.
To be considered for the awards, you will need to find out who the nominator in your school is. You can find out on the Phi theta kappa website http://www.ptk.org/
Nomination requirements
To be eligible for the awards you'll have to meet certain requirements:
• Be enrolled in a community college in the U.S. or be a member of Phi theta
kappa and be enrolled in a community college outside the U.S.
• Must have a cumulative GPA of 3.50 on a 4 point scale for all course work
completed in the last 5 years no matter the institutions attended
• Students are required to be on track to earn an associate or bachelors degree
• Must have a minimum of 30 semester hours completed at a community college in
the last 5 years
• Students must not have been nominated previously for the awards.
• Must have a community college record that is free of any serious disciplinary
action.
• Must have a record free from any criminal convictions or if a convicted felon
must have completed all conditions of sentencing including probation.
Coca Cola scholars program:
A total of 250 high school students in the United States will be given cash awards each year in this program. An initial number of 2,200 are selected from all the applicants nationwide and are notified by mail. These 2,200 students are then required to send in another round of applications that will include essays, transcripts and recommendation letters. The second round of applications must be received by a specified date in January. From these students, a program review committee will select 250 individuals who will be notified by mid February.
These 250 students will each go through a personal interview process in Atlanta, Georgia. The interviews are conducted by a national selection committee that is made up of outstanding people in the fields of business, government, arts and education. At the end of the interview sessions, the selection committee will decide on 50 students who are designated as national scholars and receive $20,000 worth of funding for college over the 4 year period. The 200 that remain are designated as regional scholars and receive $10,000 awards over the same period as the national scholars.
Requirements
Requirements for this program include:
• You must be a current high school or home schooled senior in the United
States
• Must be either one of U.S citizen, resident, Asylum seeker, refugees,
Cuban-Haitian immigrant or a humanitarian parolee
• You must be preparing to complete high school at the time of application
• Must have plans to enroll in an accredited U.S post secondary institution
• Must have a minimum GPA of 3.00 at the end of you junior year of high school
Prospective applicants are ineligible if they are children or grandchildren
of Coca Cola employees, officers or owners of Coca Cola Company or any of its
subsidiaries.
The Coca Cola Company also has a needs based grant program for
American
Indian students who will be enrolled in accredited colleges in the fall. The
program is known as the Coca Cola first generation scholarship. It is
aimed at students who will be the first in their immediate families to be
enrolled at tribal colleges or universities.
The requirements for this program are:
• You must have a GPA of at least 3.00
• You must demonstrate leadership and commitment to the American Indian
community
• Be the first in your immediate family to attend a tribal college or university
• Have proof of your tribal membership
• Should show exceptional academic achievement
• And should show financial need
If you are in the Federal Direct Loan Program, you can apply for the income contingent plan. This basically means you pay back the loan based on the amount of money you are currently earning. When you're salary is low you pay back less and it increases as your salary increases. This program allows you up to 25 years to payback the student loan after which time any remaining money owed is forgiven.
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