Local Initiatives: Education

Some of our longest-running programs include those focused on education, because education is one of the keys to socioeconomic development.
We also create and encourage educational programs for underprivileged or at-risk youth. Such programs focus on building educational infrastructure, mentoring, school dropout prevention, reading and literacy, scholarships, business-education partnerships and other local needs.

Examples of our educational initiatives include:

Established in 1984, The Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program is a cross-age tutoring program for students in at risk situations to prevent dropouts. The basic concept of this innovative and highly successful program encourages older, at-risk students to take academic responsibility for their younger peers. The program pairs at-risk middle and junior high students with elementary students, ultimately improving the academic standing of both.

Through a long-standing partnership with the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), The Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program is designed to reduce the dropout rate of middle school students. The Program has expanded its reach to thousands of students in schools within the US and Brazil.

Since 1993, The Coca-Cola First Generation Scholarship program has supported students who are the first in their immediate family to attend college or university.

The Coca-Cola Foundation has committed over $14 million in scholarships to be paid through 2010 and has awarded over $11 million to First Generation students at almost 400 colleges, including more than 32 American Indian tribal colleges. The program has now expanded to more than 50 universities in China, supporting students who are the first from their villages to pursue higher education. Eligible students are college students in attendance at participating schools or tribal colleges who are the first in their immediate family to attend college. Qualifying students, selected by their school, have a demonstrated financial need, are the first in his or her immediate family to go to college, are enrolled as a full-time student, and attain and maintain a 3.0 academic average to be eligible for the program.

The Coca-Cola Foundation values qulity education partnerships and has contributed over $400,000 in support of Teach for America. The funding has been in support of the national Teach for America programs for teacher recruitment and training as well as local teacher recruitment in Atlanta.

Learn more about what we are doing to promote work-readiness in Africa, go there »

Explore the Little Red Schoolhouse, go there »