LAKE COUNTY — Kelseyville High School senior Becca Brookes received a scholarship from the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation earlier this year and spent part of her spring break with recipients from across the nation at an event in Atlanta.
“It was definitely life-changing. It was great,” the 17-year-old said during a phone interview Tuesday.
The application process began last fall, and Brookes recalled feeling shock several months later when notified of her selection.
“I was really surprised to get the scholarship because it was a national scholarship and there are 84,000 applicants. So I just kind of applied on a whim, not thinking I would actually get it,” she said.
In addition to the $10,000 scholarship, the lifetime Kelseyville resident joined nearly 250 other students for the 2012 Coca-Cola Scholars Weekend in mid-April, “all on Coke”s tab.”
“It was overwhelming to realize that you were first of all chosen among these people, and then second of all just put in the same caliber as all of these other kids that had done just incredible things,” Brookes said.
She remembered touring Coca-Cola Co. bottling facilities, visiting sites in Atlanta and completing a community-service project on water conservation.
The event also included a banquet for the scholars and program sponsors. Brookes said she sat near the CEO of Microsoft Corp. and met the keynote speaker, actor Morgan Freeman.
Atlanta was the farthest east she had ever been in the United States.
Brookes, who graduates with her Kelseyville classmates today, is set to attend California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo with a major in kinesiology.
