The American Indian College Fund Honors 36 Native American Coca-Cola First Generation Scholars

Published April 19, 2020

Students Awarded $5,000 Scholarships

DENVER — Three dozen Native American students from throughout Indian Country have earned scholarships that will help them be the first in their families to pursue an academic career at a tribal college or university.

The scholarships come courtesy of the American Indian College Fund in partnership with the Coca-Cola Foundation. The COVID-19 pandemic interfered with the American Indian College Fund’s plan to honor 36 American Indian first-generation scholarship recipients at its 2020 banquet in Albuquerque, New Mexico in late March. To protect the students and their communities, the College Fund cancelled the banquet.

The Coca-Cola Foundation has awarded more than $5 million to the American Indian College Fund since 1990 to fund the Coca-Cola First Generation Scholarship.  The goal of the scholarship is to help students who are the first in their families to attend a tribal college or university. To date the scholarship has assisted more than 400 first-generation Native Americans in their college education. The scholarship is renewable throughout students’ tribal college careers if they maintain a 3.0 grade point average and are active in campus and community life. 

The following scholars are being awarded scholarships through the program:

Rose Mary Antone, Aaniiih Nakoda College

Kaylee Begay, Little Priest Tribal College

Thomas Berryhill, Haskell Indian Nations University

William Bouschor, Bay Mills Community College

Shanae Burshia, Fort Peck Community College

David Butler, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa College

Jacob Claymore, United Tribes Technical College

Kristen Dean, Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College

Annie Evans, Salish Kootenai College

LeVonna Graham, Chief Dull Knife College

Chyann Haas, Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College

Tammy Hammer, Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College

Ella Hoffman, Nebraska Indian Community College

Martin Horn, Stone Child College

Michael Howling Wolf, Northwest Indian College

Michael Iceman, Red Lake Nation College

Elizabeth Lukee, Institute of American Indian Arts

Tiana Martinez, Haskell Indian Nations University

Christy Max, Sisseton Wahpeton College

Anna Old Crow, Little Big Horn College

Dwayne Ortega, Tohono O’odham Community College

Gwendolyn Owletuck, Ilisagvik College

Ashley Peters, College of Menominee Nation

Tevin Phillips, College of the Muscogee Nation

Curtis Rainey, Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College

Faith Roy, White Earth Tribal and Community College

Kylie Rutherford, Blackfeet Community College

Shawna Semmens, Leech Lake Tribal College

Shinaya Todacheenie, Diné College

Kaylie Trottier, Sitting Bull College

Loren Tsosie, Navajo Technical University

Robert Upton, Turtle Mountain Community College

Tada Vargas, Oglala Lakota College

TiShai Yazzie, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Leslie Young, Cankdeska Cikana Community College

Sarah Zephier, Sinte Gleska University