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Alumni News | 04/29/2022
By: Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation

April 2022 Accolades

Bosco Kante's (1989) nonprofit, Black Music Incubator, was awarded a $707k grant, and
Bosco Kante (1989) founded a nonprofit organization, Black Music Incubator, that was awarded a $707k grant to purchase a music studio in Oakland, CA. In addition, the music tech company he founded, ElectroSpit, is launching an equity crowdfunding campaign that just passed 100k in reservations. ElectroSpit also just received a $300k investment from ICA Fund.
Kiera Peltz‘s (2012) company, The Coding School, has received a $3 million, 3-year grant from DoD STEM called TRAIN to train the next generation of AI leaders and educators.

Are you a school district or administrator interested in learning more? A teacher wanting to bring this to your students, or a high school student excited about learning about AI? Learn more.

Read about how Kiera created The Coding School and her passion for understanding happiness.
Sally Nuamah (2007) received the Rodney Higgins Best Faculty Paper Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists for her paper “Public Perceptions of Black Girls and their Punitive Consequences.” It also won the 2021 American Political Science Association’s Best Paper on Intersectionality Award.
Christian Beck (2020) auditioned on ABC’s American Idol and received a golden ticket to Hollywood! He was scouted on TikTok after taking up singing and songwriting during the pandemic. His story about his sister going through brain cancer on top of his amazing talent won over the judges.
Beyonce Hammond (2020) and Fatimata Cham (2019) were selected as Truman Scholars. Truman Scholars demonstrate outstanding leadership potential, a commitment to a career in government or the nonprofit sector, and academic excellence. Each Truman Scholar receives funding for graduate studies, leadership training, career counseling, and special internship and fellowship opportunities within the federal government.
Vanessa Voller (2012) and Zachary Marcone (2015) were selected as Fulbright Scholars. Vanessa will be returning to Costa Rica and Bolivia next year to analyze the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on a variety of adolescent health services and outcomes. Zachary will be based in Uganda and studying the role of foreign investment on economic development.
Grace Li (2013) published her debut novel, Portrait of a Thief, a lush, lyrical heist novel inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums, about diaspora, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity.

The New York Times described it as “engaging and surprising, and the narrative brims with international intrigue…as much a novel as a reckoning.”
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle have also recommended her book, and her sister and fellow Coke Scholar Sharon Li (2015) made a short Tiktok video about Grace’s journey as a writer.
Nicole Thompson (2010) directed her first feature film for Lifetime Network, Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story. It premieres June 18 at 8pm Eastern.
Joel Bervell (2013) was named to the National Minority Quality Forum’s list of 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health for the way he uses digital media to break down barriers in the healthcare field.
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