Alumni Connections November 2015

The Alumni Advisory Board held their annual working retreat outside of Atlanta on November 13 and 14. The group welcomed new members, reflected on their work from 2015, and planned new alumni engagement activities for 2016. The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation Alumni Advisory Board was formed in 2006 by alumni Scholars to help support the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation’s mission and goals. Learn more about the members of the AAB.

Close to 40 Scholar alumni attended a special networking and professional development event at Google headquarters outside of San Francisco last week where a trained Google facilitator led them in a session on “Mindfulness”.

Over 50 Coca-Cola Scholars and alumni came to a reception at Sony Pictures Entertainment in Los Angeles last week arranged by David Buckholtz (1993) and Josh Miller (2005), who both work at Sony. The reception featured catering by Wolfgang Puck, and early guests enjoyed a tour of Sony studios!

Coke Scholars Karina Plascencia (2010) and Eric Beeler (2012) attended the National Council of Negro Women 14th Annual Uncommon Height Gala in Washington, DC thanks to an invitation from The Coca-Cola Company! Pictured from the left: Jon Thompson, Linda Brigham (Senior Manager, Public Affairs and Communications, The Coca-Cola Company), Karina Plascencia (2010), Clyde Tuggle (SVP, Chief Public Affairs & Communications Officer, The Coca-Cola Company), Eric Beeler (2012), and Eric’s guest.

Joseph English (2013), Nisha Desai (2004) and Nina Chandra (2006) were invited to attend the La Mama Theater Gala on Nov. 2 in New York by Donna Cirolia at The Coca-Cola Company. They got to meet Sarah Jessica Parker, who hosted the festive event!

Rocio Ortega (2012), Jessica Zhao (2014) and Sarah Perkins (2007) enjoyed the opportunity to attend the International Women’s Forum Gala in New York and meet Wanda Rodwell, Director of Communications at The Coca-Cola Company, pictured here with them.

Jennifer Paxton wrote to tell us that a fellow 2008 Coke Scholar from Michigan, Shravani Mikkilineni, is her classmate in the MBA program at The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and sent us this picture of them with some classmates. “I am still so very thankful for the relationships that Coke brought into my life,” said Jennifer.