Senior Victoria Taylor is named a Coca-Cola Scholar Semifinalist
By Sakura Amano, Staff Writer
17 year old Samo student Victoria Taylor (’21) has gotten one step closer to becoming part of the 2021 class of Coca-Cola Scholars as a Semifinalist.
Of the 99,403 applicants from across the country, only 1,609 high school seniors have been named Semifinalists based on academic achievement, leadership and service through their school and community.
As the largest corporate-sponsored, achievement based scholarship program in the United States, the program awards the final 150 winners a $20,000 college scholarship, as well as other exclusive benefits such as networking and connections through the brand.
Taylor has been President of the Books For Kids club at Samo for the past three years, where members will collect books and donations to give to communities/schools in need. She is also Vice President of NAMI, the National Alliance for Mental Illness on campus club, which is focused on destigmatizing mental illness. On top of this, Taylor has played violin for the Symphony orchestra at Samo since her freshman year.
In terms of college, Taylor plans to attend school in California and is applying for a bachelors in Biology with a teaching credential in order to pursue her passion of educational reform. With this, she hopes to get into the policy side of education, such as administration and program establishment. Even through the inevitable stress of taking all AP courses (with the exception of orchestra), senior year, college applications and much more, Taylor manages to stay optimistic through it all.
“I have this motto. It's like, when people ask me about dream schools and stuff, I always say whatever school I go to, that's gonna be the dream school,” Taylor said.
In addition to college funding, Coca-Cola Scholars become part of a growing group of alumni who work together through networking and connections to create positive impacts on the world. The alumni, known as the Coca Cola Scholars network members, are also welcomed on a Leadership Summit retreat every five years and get the opportunity to meet with CEOs of major companies who are willing to sponsor alumni-led projects or missions.
Seeing the life-changing aspects of the Coca-Cola Scholar Program, it is clear that not only was it Taylor’s academic excellence which named her a Semifinalist, but her activities and projects outside of school as well. One activity which likely allowed Taylor to stand out from the other applicants was her commitment as a 10th year Girl Scout, along with the Gold award she received as a scout. As part of this award, Taylor worked with a school in East Los Angeles where she built classroom libraries, which ties into Books For Kids, as well as her career goal of ultimately bringing individualized development into public education.
As a Semifinalist, Taylor must now complete Phase 2 applications—essays, recommendations and transcripts. From there, 250 Regional Finalists will be announced by the end of January, who will go on to participate in online interviews. In the end, 150 Coca-Cola Scholars will be hand selected in March to claim the $20,000 college scholarship and be a part of the Coca-Cola Scholars Leadership Development Institute led by alumni.
