Kellogg Community College is pleased to announce that student Elliana Ballah, of Vermontville, has been named a 2024 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholar by the Coca-Cola Foundation.
The prestigious honor was bestowed on just 210 students nationwide – all members of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society – and comes with a $1,000 scholarship.
Ballah, a 2023 home-school graduate, is majoring in Graphic Design at KCC with plans to graduate in 2025. She’s a member of KCC’s Alpha Nu Eta chapter of PTK and won the Best of Digital Design and Graphic Design Scholarship awards at the College’s Annual Student Art Exhibition awards ceremony this past spring.
According to the award announcement from PTK, Ballah was chosen from among nearly 1,500 applicants.
“We are thrilled to celebrate Elliana Ballah’s achievement in being selected as one of only 210 recipients of the Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise scholarship across the country,” KCC Vice President for Student Affairs Terah Zaremba said. “This scholarship is a recognition of the hard work and potential that our students embody. It highlights the importance of supporting academic excellence and leadership development in community colleges, and we are incredibly proud to see Elliana honored on a national stage.”
The Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholarship Program is meant to help new PTK members defray educational expenses, with recipients selected based on scholastic achievement, community service and leadership potential.
“The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation has a long history of providing financial assistance to outstanding students at community colleges,” Jane Hale Hopkins, president of the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, said in a statement. “We are proud to partner with Phi Theta Kappa to make it possible for more deserving students to achieve their educational goals and support tomorrow’s leaders of the global community.”
The funds provided by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation aid college completion and give students the opportunity to engage in PTK programming and develop skills to become future leaders in their communities.
“Research shows that Phi Theta Kappa members are four times more likely to complete a college degree than their peers,” Dr. Monica Marlowe, executive director of the Phi Theta Kappa Foundation, said in a statement. “The Leaders of Promise Scholarships recognize students for what they have achieved already and assure that financial need isn’t an obstacle to achieving their academic goals.”
About Phi Theta Kappa
Phi Theta Kappa is an invitation-only international honor society made up of more than 4.3 million members and nearly 1,300 chapters in 11 countries, with approximately 240,000 active members in the nation’s colleges. KCC students in the organization must have completed 12 or more semester hours with a 3.5 or higher grade-point average. New KCC students may be invited to provisional membership based on their high school academic achievement and leadership activities. For more information about PTK, visit kellogg.edu/rsos or ptk.org.
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