May Accolades 2017

Philip McAdoo (1989) has a children’s book coming out this month entitled “Every Child Deserves,” the first in a series of books dedicated to honoring the lives and stories of youth in foster care and LGBTQ families. Philip and his partner Sean adopted their son Zaden from foster care years ago, which inspired this story.

Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse (1991) has a book out this month entitled “The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance.” Millennial Action Project Founder, Steven Olikara (2008), had the chance to interview Senator Sasse about his book on C-Span to be aired soon.

Katori Hall (1999) has been named the artistic director of the Hattiloo Theater, an African-American repertory theater in Memphis.

Jolene Loetscher (1997) and her husband Nate Burdine of Mud Mile Communications received a Silver Telly Award in the General-Live Events for Non-Broadcast Productions category for the video they produced above for our 2016 Scholars Banquet!

Silver Telly Awards are the highest level of Telly you can receive. Overall, the Tellys had 12,000+ entries from 50 states and 5 countries. They have previously won 2 Telly awards for other videos that they created for the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and web commercials, videos, and films.

Crystal R. Sanders (2001) was recently tenured and promoted to Associate Professor of History and African American Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Crystal is the author of the award-winning book, A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi’s Black Freedom Struggle that was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016.  The National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation has just awarded Crystal a postdoctoral fellowship for the 2017-2018 academic year to begin writing her new book that is tentatively titled “Deferred Dreams and Exiled Citizens: Black Graduate Education in the Age of Jim Crow.  More information about the fellowship can be found here.

Wendi Adelson (1997) is the new Executive Director of the IMPAC Fund (Immigration Partnership and Coalition Fund). Wendi was connected to the opportunity through Rudy Fernandez (1991) and Mike Fernandez, the Founder of IMPAC, at the 2015 Coca-Cola Scholars Service Summit in Miami, all of whom are passionate about justice for immigrants. When referring to her Coca-Cola Scholars family, Wendi stated, “This community of incredible people is the gift that keeps on giving.”

Ken Harbaugh (1992), Chief Operations Officer of Team Rubicon USA, is running for a US Congressional seat in Ohio’s 7th District.

Tom Perriello (1992) is running for Governor of Virginia.