August 2025 Scholar Accolades
Crystal Sanders (2001) received the 2025 Lillian Smith Book Award, administered by the University of Georgia Libraries to honor books dedicated to social justice issues. Her book, A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregation Scholarships, and the Debt Owed to Public HBCUs, recounts the challenges Southern Black graduate students faced before the passage of Brown v. Board of Education.
"Sanders serves as associate professor of African American studies at Emory University, and she previously held the position of director of the Africana Research Center at Pennsylvania State University, Alongside her accolades for several features in journal publications throughout the years, her first book, A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi’s Black Freedom Struggle, received the 2017 Critics Choice Award and New Scholar’s Book Award from the American Educational Research Association." - University Libraries, University of Georgia
Lydia Hollon (2017) competed in National American Miss Georgia and was selected as first runner up overall, first runner up Miss Spirit, first runner up dream model, first runner up photogenic, first runner up casual wear, spokesmodel winner, runway winner, actress winner, spirit of pageantry winner, and academic achievement winner.
Lydia wrote, "To say this was a big step for me is an understatement. As an adult, it is easy to stay in your comfort zone and only do the things that you are best at. But I am a firm believer that you only get better when you take a leap of faith and do the things that scare you, that challenge you."
Mukta Dharmapurikar (2022), Shiva A. Rajbhandari (2023), and Cordelia R. Van der Veer (2022) have been awarded the Udall Undergraduate Scholarship.
The Udall Scholarship identifies future leaders in environmental, Tribal public policy, and health care fields. It is highly competitive, with students participating in their schools’ internal competitions before receiving consideration from the Udall Foundation.
Liberty Bank honored EMG LLC, founded and led by Joelle A. Murchison (1991) for Black Business Month. EMG empowers companies—from startups to Fortune 500s—to build cultures rooted in inclusion, innovation, and intentional growth. Their work is reshaping how organizations lead, listen, and evolve.
"We’re honored to stand beside EMG in their mission to create workplaces where everyone thrives. Supporting Black-owned businesses isn’t just a moment—it’s a movement." - Liberty Bank
David Spicer (2019) was elected as 2025-2026 President of the Graduate Student Assembly at The University of Texas at Austin, representing more than 12,000 graduate students.
"David Spicer is a doctoral student in the Higher Education Leadership and Policy program at The University of Texas at Austin. His research examines legal challenges to the use of race in higher education policy, such as affirmative action and outcomes-based funding. Additional research interests include free expression and student activism. Before coming to UT Austin, David was a middle-school English teacher in Southwest Louisiana." - University of Texas at Austin
Nzinga Tull (1993) was awarded one of the Lux Awards by the Greater Boston Morehouse College Alumni Association at the 2025 House on the Vineyard.
Nzinga shared with Georgia Tech, "I am currently a systems engineer with over 25 years of experience in aerospace systems engineering at Jackson and Tull, a family-owned and operated engineering company. As an Anomaly Response Manager and Systems Management professional with the Mission Operations Team of the Hubble Space Telescope at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, I support normal mission planning and coordinate technical investigation, resolution, and recovery from problems that disrupt Hubble flight operations. Due to the role I played in recovering Hubble operations in Summer 2021 after a five-week disruption caused by a payload computer malfunction, I was featured in numerous technical and popular publications in the U.S. and abroad, including a profile in the Washington City Paper, The People Issue 2021.”
Regina Bain (1994), Executive Director of Louis Armstrong House Museum, was featured in the Amsterdam News.
Regina speaks about his legacy in the article.
“His legacy is massive, it’s huge, and it’s definitely something that requires time to learn about,” said Bain, who became the executive director in August 2020. “There are things that many people know, such as [the song] ‘What a Wonderful World.’ Some people may also know ‘Hello Dolly.’ Fewer people know about him as a visual artist, a collage artist, about film, about who he was to the community.”
The piece also notes her connection to Armstrong.
"Bain, herself an artist and educator, immersed herself in Armstrong’s music and listened to how musicians and historians spoke about him. She also heard from the kids who grew up in Queens when Armstrong lived there." - Amsterdam News
Alumni News
November 2025 Scholar Accolades
Accolades featuring Coke Scholars Linda Yao (2006), Dr. Scott Hale (2004), Brandon Cardet-Hernandez (2003), Leia Schwartz (2014), TJ Abrams (2001), and Olivia Sally (2020).
July 2025 Scholar Accolades
Coke Scholar Accolades featuring Natosha Reid Rice (1989), Ariona Cook (2023), Vivian Nguyen (2023), Nathan Alexander (2003), & Talia Fradkin (2016).
Celebrating Coke Scholar College Graduates
Congratulations to our Coke Scholar Grads! See where they are headed next.