CLEVELAND – Two students at Cuyahoga Community College, Lauren Campbell of Brecksville and Ulyana Ivankiv of North Royalton, have each been awarded $1,000 scholarships from the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. Through the Coca-Cola Two-Year Colleges Scholarship Program, the Foundation awards a total of 400 scholarships annually to students attending higher-education institutions granting two-year degrees. All recipients have demonstrated academic success and participated in community service within the past 12 months.
Campbell strongly believes community service allows her to feel more fulfilled in life. As a former volunteer for the Washington State School for the Deaf and the American Red Cross, she discovered that humanitarian aid was the key to her happiness. Although she graduated with her bachelor’s degree from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. and worked for some time as a mortgage banker, she was determined to follow her heart. Campbell enrolled in Tri-C’s Nursing Program in 2008. "The Coca-Cola Scholarship truly has made going back to school possible for me. It allowed me to follow my dreams and really was a confidence booster that I was doing the right thing. I cannot be more appreciative of the generosity of The Coca-Cola Foundation," says Campbell.
As a member of Tri-C’s Chi Omega Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the International Honor Society of the Two-Year College, Ivankiv embraces the organization’s hallmark of service. “Her selfless efforts as a member, and then in her leadership roles as secretary, and now chapter president, proves she is a role model for our members,” says Mary N. Hovanec, Advisor to Chi Omega Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. Juggling school, family, and job responsibilities, Ivankiv also still finds the time to make a difference in the world by volunteering for numerous service activities involving at-risk children and animals. Just last year, Ivankiv chaired the chapter’s efforts to educate Tri-C’s student body on the continuing aftereffects of the disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
“The Coca-Cola Two-Year Colleges Scholarship Program is an extension of our long-standing commitment to college education throughout the United States,” said J. Mark Davis, President of the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation.
The Coca-Cola Two-Year Colleges Scholarship Program complements the Foundation’s Coca-Cola Scholars Program, which awards more than $3 million annually in college scholarships to 250 outstanding high school seniors. The Coca-Cola Scholars Program is one of the most recognized and respected corporate-sponsored scholarships in America.
The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation is supported by the financial commitment of Coca-Cola Bottlers and The Coca-Cola Company. The Foundation was created in 1986 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Coca-Cola and to establish a legacy for the education of tomorrow’s leaders. Now in its ninth year of funding the Coca-Cola Two-Year Colleges Scholarship Program, the Foundation has provided $3.7 million in scholarship awards to students attending two-year degree granting institutions and more than $35 million towards the Coca-Cola Scholars Program during the past 20 years.