Alumni Accolades July 2015

Rocio Ortega (2012) had the honor of introducing First Lady Michelle Obama as a keynote speaker at the 4th annual 2015 Girl Up Leadership Summit on July 14. The First Lady joined them to celebrate Girl Up joining her initiative “Let Girls Learn” aimed at ensuring girls around the world receive an education. Rocio has been involved with Girl Up since 2011, first as a Girl Up club founder at her high school then as a Teen Advisor for the campaign. She is now a Youth Champion was part of a United Nations Foundation Girl Up delegation to Ethiopia to visit Somali girls living in refugee camps. “I do everything from engaging with youth supporters in the U.S. and around the world to lobbying in Capitol Hill for legislation that meets the needs of girls education in developing countries, fundraising, and helping organize Girl Up leadership summits,” said Rocio.

Adan Gonzalez (2012), recent Georgetown graduate, was featured in USA Today. Watch how he is balancing a double life between being a student CEO of the Si Se Puede Network and coming from a poor community in Dallas where people are just trying to survive.

A photo taken by Julian Plowden (2010) from Atlanta’s August 2014 Ferguson solidarity march will be included in an upcoming exhibit at the Louvre Museum in Paris. Julian has been covering the Black Lives Matter movement throughout the United States, and his images have been exhibited at the Hammonds House Museum and Emory University. Read his interview with Atlanta’s Creative Loafing and visit his website, Candid in Atlanta.

The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation received our first Telly Award thanks to this amazing “Refresh the World” video that Jolene Loetscher (1997) and her husband Nate created for us! While Jolene and Nate were the award winners, they were kind enough to send us our own replicate.

Albert Lawrence (2003), correspondent for ABC7 news in Los Angeles, got some social media tips from comedian Kevin Hart while at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal the other day.

Daria Torres (1992), strategy consultant and the managing partner at Walls Torres Group, shared keys to successful organizational growth in Business Innovators Magazine. Daria also helped lead the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation’s 2013 strategic planning efforts.

Elise Stefanik (2002), America’s youngest congresswoman to date, was selected to chair a hearing last month of the House Republican Policy Committee entitled “Millenials and the GOP: Learning from America’s emerging leaders to shape tomorrow’s Republican agenda.” Click here to learn more and watch video from the hearing.

Justin Pinn (2009) has been named the next Assistant Director of the Georgetown Scholarship Program at Georgetown University where he  will advise, mentor, and help 600+ first generation college students. He has also been named to the Board of Advisers for the Venture Academy Charter School in Minneapolis and was selected by Legacy Miami magazine as one of “South Florida’s 40 Under 40 Black Leaders of Today and Tomorrow for 2015.”

Carrie Regan (1989), Jany Brown (1992), and Kacie Darden (2001) participated in the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon – an Olympic Distance, with a 1500 meter swim, 42 km bike, and 10k run. They had beautiful weather and Jany and Carrie’s finish times were within seconds of each other. After the race they learned through Facebook that Kacie participated as well. Jany and Carrie took this photo for us to prove, as Carrie said, “that us ‘senior’ Coke Scholars can still represent at feats of athletic prowess!”