Coca Cola Scholar

Published: February 15, 2024 | Updated: April 3, 2024

Less than 1/6th of 1% of applicants were chosen to receive this extremely competitive award. Amari is one of 150 students who was selected from over 100,000 applicants for exemplifying superior leadership, service, and academics, being a change agent, and positively affecting others in his community.

Recipients Who Lead and Serve

The Coca-Cola Scholars Program Scholarship is an achievement-based scholarship awarded to students in their final year of high school. Students are recognized for their capacity to lead and serve, as well as their commitment to making a significant impact on their schools and communities.

In addition to receiving a $20,000 scholarship to the college of their choice, Coke Scholars get to join and collaborate with a group of leaders who are equally interested in improving the communities around them.

An International Film Translator

Amari, whose mother is from Taiwan, considers Taiwanese culture to be an important part of his identity. Several years ago on a family trip to Taiwan, he learned about a film that director, Leading Li, was working on. The film was to be about a Taiwanese highway known as Provincial Highway No. 61 which runs along the west coast of Taiwan, connecting the northern part of the country to the south. Amari was interested in making the film available to a wider audience and took the initative to request permission from the director to translate it. The translated version was shared across several Asian TV networks as well as YouTube.

Amari later translated several commercials as well as the film, "Time for Huanang" (hoo-wa-naan). He described "Time for Huanang" as a Taiwanese version of the American movie, Back to the Future. "The main character travels back in time in order to explore the cultural values of a different time period," Amari said. "In particular, Daoism."

Amari received a letter of commendation from Taiwan's Minister of Culture for his work in translation.

A Political Lobbyist

Amari has also lobbied his Congressional representatives on behalf of the Alliance of Specialty Medicine. The Alliance of Specialty Medicine (the Alliance) is a non-partisan coalition of national medical societies who represent specialty physicians in the United States. The group seeks to improve the prior authorization process, to provide support for H.R. 2163 and S. 464, the Safe Step Act and to improve other healthcare related issues which can be learned about on their website.

In 2023 the group sent Amari to Washington D.C. where he recalled meeting with Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, Senator Roger Marshall from Kansas, and then Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy in order to attempt to ban STEP Therapy. STEP Therapy is the process that insurance companies establish requiring patients to try medications of the company's choosing and prove them to be ineffective before being granted access to the medication prescribed by their provider. In doing this Amari discovered an obstacle: representatives on both sides of Congress are funded by insurance companies who do not want campaigns such as these to succeed.

What is the answer to barriers created by campaign sponsors? Amari thought increased transparency is a necessity around politician sponsorship. This information is technically available online, but not easily accessible.  "Exposing that insurance companies are trying to buy out American politics would be a good first step," Amari commented.

In his discussions with then Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, Amari gained insight into the concept of perceived polarization. "Representative McCarthy said it's a proven way to get them (politicians) votes; polarization is for media attention."

An Entrepreneur

In 2023, Amari started a company to make education more equitable called ApexSAT. The company began by offering free tutoring and review sessions for the SAT. "I had close friends talk about not being able to afford tutoring," Amari said. "And that just didn't sit well with me."

The organization's first official event was a summer camp. "I expected a few dozen students," Amari reflected. In the end, he had close to 500 students sign up to participate. One student even emailed Amari after the camp was over to express his thanks. The student said he'd been limiting himself due to his family's financial situation, but with the tutoring and resources he had access to through the ApexSAT Summer Camp, he viewed things differently. "The guy actually out-scored me on the SAT!" Amari said with a smile.

The company now has 120 volunteers across the United States and internationally and is expanding to provide students with support in the college admissions process. Although P.C. has a wonderful, highly-qualified College and Career Counselor and Department, not all school districts prioritize such supports for students. Any student who has ever interacted with Stephanie Cornelio, P.C.'s College and Career Counselor, knows that she has a plan that guides interested families through the college admissions process starting students' freshman year. "A college counselor outside of school can cost upwards of $100/hour," Amari commented. In supporting the college admissions process, ApexSAT offers strategies for getting into college, how to write college essays, and how to ensure you're choosing extracurriculars that maximize your interests and strengths while also helping close the gap(s) on weaknesses.

An Academic

One of Amari's favorite classes at P.C. was AP European History with Mr. Russ Davie. Prior to taking this class Amari indicated that his interest in history had primarily been military. However, the course had expanded his focus to include the politics of history, religion, and society. "There's always been a struggle between religious unity and nationalism," Amari said. "Nationalism almost always wins out, especially in European history."

Amari enjoyed the challenge of the course overall and appreciated Mr. Davie's innovative teaching strategies which included engaging in debates and gaining enough knowledge in order to pretend to imitate philosophers.

"Amari is the only student I have ever met who prioritizes helping others over helping himself," commented Mr. Davie. "I have fond memories of him competing in my debates and simulations and have always admired his tremendous preparation and focus."  Mr. Davie also indicated that this year Amari has the shared strategies and knowledge that have helped him to achieve on AP exams in the past. "I have watched it make an immediate impact on my students," Mr. Davie said.   

Amari also enjoyed history courses taught by recently retired Social Studies teacher, Dave Pelton-Cox, as well as English teacher, Val Babbitt. "One of Amari’s best qualities is his genuine and sincere humility," Ms. Babbitt reflected. She also indicated that much of the work in AP Lang is collaborative group work, and that Amari always made a conscious effort to ensure every member of his group had an opportunity to speak and be heard, never devaluing others' opinions. "As driven and goal oriented as Amari is," she said, "he always had a focus on helping others reach their potential. He believed in them as much as he believed in himself." 

An Engaged Community Member

In addition to exploring academic opportunities while at P.C., Amari has also maximized leadership and social opportunities. He participated in Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) to learn about individual businesses and microeconomics, Speech and Debate where he focused on public policy from national standpoint, and Future Health Science Professionals (HOSA) where he competed in events related to human psychology and healthcare policy. He was also involved in the National English Honor Society and co-founded (re-started) the National Social Studies Honor Society with classmate, Keison Morales.

Headed to Stanford

Before Amari heads off to Stanford University in the fall, we asked him to tell us the best part about P.C. To which he responded:

Having teachers who cared about your well-being and genuinely wanted to be part of your journey was what was special about this school. I wouldn't have traded it for anything!