Students from Leeward Community College and Hawaiʻi Community College have been named 2024 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholars. Titi Ricafort and Mary Christine Nguyen will each receive a $1,000 scholarship. They were selected based on outstanding academic achievement and demonstrated leadership potential from nearly 1,500 applicants.
The Leaders of Promise Scholarship Program was launched in 2001 to help members of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK), an honor society, obtain an associate degree and encourage participation in its programs. PTK awards 200 scholarships annually—25 are earmarked for members who are active personnel or veterans of the U.S. Military or are military spouses.
Titi Ricafort
Ricafort, a military spouse, was selected as a 2024 Coca-Cola Military Leaders of Promise Scholar.
She has been a student of Leeward CC since 2022 and joined Phi Theta Kappa in 2023. Ricafort serves PTK at the chapter level for Leeward CC and at the regional level as an officer. She is a member of the student activities board. She also serves on the Patient Advocacy Council at the UH Cancer Center, and has been active in the community, supporting events and fundraising. She currently works in the residential mortgage industry.
Ricafort said, “I am very honored to receive a most prestigious scholarship from Phi Theta Kappa.”
Mary Christine Nguyen
Nguyen was selected as a 2024 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholar.
At Hawaiʻi CC, she earned a 4.0 grade point average, made the dean’s list and serves as president for the campus chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. Nguyen also serves as Hawaiʻi CC student government treasurer and treasurer of the Administration of Justice Club. She is the vice president of Waiakea Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization board.
Nguyen said, “I will be 50 in a couple of years, am an accountant, a newly single mother, a caregiver for a disabled mother, and have an autoimmune disease. While returning to school after all this time was hard, Hawaiʻi CC has changed my life in so many ways for the better.”
