SHS senior Rachel Starghill has a multitude of accomplishments: international DECA winner, admission to 15 colleges, nationally decorated essayist. However, the most selective may be her recent admission into the Coca-Cola Scholarship Program. With an acceptance rate of less than 0.15%, it is one of the most competitive scholarships in the world.
After her original application in September, she got accepted into the second round of application, deeming her a semi-finalist—one of 1,336. By Jan. 3, she was one of 250 regional finalists. On Jan. 25, she had her interview.
The interview consists of three Coca-Cola scholar alumni, the program director, and one hopeful Coca-Cola scholar. Two weeks later, she got her acceptance letter, changing the trajectory of her academic career.
The Coca-Cola Scholarship program began in 1986, originally offering 150 students $10,000 a year. In 2014, the program adjusted its scholarship to $20,000 to account for “the cost of education at a four-year institution [increasing dramatically.”
Starghill expressed her surprise at winning the scholarship, saying that she thought she had “zero chance.” It was only when she became a regional finalist that she began to consider the possibility of winning. She says that is when it became exciting for her “because it was when I added my personality and voice into the application, and they saw my passion and my impact that I wanted to make. The fact that they wanted to hear more gave me a lot of hope for the future.”
Even though the stakes were high, she wasn’t afraid of the interview that followed, as it “wouldn’t change who I was or my accomplishments, and it would not make or break who I am. I knew that I was the best expert on myself and as long as I stayed true to myself, everything would work out.”
Starghill cites her authenticity as the main propelling factor of her win. Every activity and extracurricular she put her time into was something that she truly enjoyed. She said, “Authenticity guides everything I do. Who I want to be will change throughout my life, but I never want to change who I am right now. I think about the areas I want to advocate for—equity—and try to implement that into everything I do.” Striving for an equitable world is what Starghill feels most passionate about, and it guided most of her work in high school, but she does not plan to stop there.
“The Coca-Cola scholarship has brought me close to an incredibly passionate and driven group of individuals, and I plan to use that network to keep striving for an equitable world,” Starghill said.