After four years of rigorous courses and laboring for volunteer hours, the ideal vacation would be to kick back and pop the lid off of an ice cold coke. This is exactly what senior Aakash Suresh can do now that he has acquired a $20,000 scholarship with Coca Cola.

“I didn’t expect myself to get it, but here I am,” Suresh said. According to the senior, he is the first charter student to receive such a prestigious scholarship.

The application process began in September when Suresh filled out a lengthy college form. He listed past activities; this included his efforts in volunteering, participation in debate, and general prospects regarding his career. After two months, Suresh was admitted into the semifinalist portion where he built an activity portfolio, submitting multiple essays including some essays that were similar to college admissions. The program then narrowed regional applicants down to 250-1,000, deciding carefully over the break who would reach the next phase.

In January, the program reached out to Suresh, notifying him as a finalist. “I had to do an interview with the committee,” Suresh said. It was a 20-minute interview and according to the foundation’s website, the committee consisted of foundation staff members and previous Coca-Cola Scholars Program scholarship recipients. They asked Suresh why he worked so hard towards the scholarship and what he plans to do with $20,000 in the future.

Suresh says his extracurriculars have elucidated a path for success.“I always knew I wanted to do something around engineering within medicine and kind of innovative agents in medicine, but I think it’s definitely shifted a lot more towards artificial intelligence, more specifically with Al in medicine over the past few years,” he noted. Suresh became involved in research alongside Sanford doctor, Dr. John Hart. From his accumulated knowledge, Suresh shared that he has been giving lessons on coding, artificial intelligence, and its ethical considerations to underprivileged children he encountered online. His commitment to bridging the knowledge gap for economically disadvantaged children truly makes him a character worthy of such an important scholarship.

Out of 103,800 applicants this year, Suresh successfully made the top 150—receiving $20,000 in gift aid, and surplus amounts of Coca Cola merch to come.