Taylor Belcher
Batavia, Ohio
PepsiCo Foundation ExCEL Award, 2008

As a minister, my dad has never made a lot of money. And as a stay-at-home-mother, my mom made even less. However, we were still financially stable enough that government aid would be minimal. I had always assumed I would need to take out a lot of student loans to pay for my college education if I did not receive adequate scholarships, and when my dad left the ministry that seemed even more certain.

My college of choice, the University of Cincinnati, was unfortunately not very generous in their scholarship offerings, and it seemed I was going to have to go deep into debt to receive a college education. Then my dad was hired by Pepsi, where he found out that family of Pepsi employees were eligible to apply for scholarships of up to $10,000 a year from the company. I didn't think I had a shot at the big prize, but my parents and I figured that every bit would help, so I completed an application a few weeks before I graduated from high school.

And then, for a long time we heard nothing. Graduation day passed, my AP scores came in the mail, I found out who my roommate for the coming year was going to be, but no word on the scholarship. I think it was around mid to late July I counted the scholarship from Pepsi as a lost cause, and that they hadn't decided to award me anything. I even said to my mom it seemed strange that they did not even send a letter saying that I had not been chosen for a scholarship.

And then the very next day a letter came. I had been awarded the top scholarship! $10,000 a year for four years! I couldn't believe it, but I appreciated the irony that we had given up the day before.

This fall I will be entering my third year at the University of Cincinnati as a Secondary Education and Mathematics major. Originally I had entered college to study Mechanical Engineering, but I felt called by God to be a teacher, and make a difference as a math teacher in an urban school. Teachers, of course, do not make a lot of money, and compared to an engineer's salary it would have been much more difficult to repay any loans on a teacher's income. The scholarship I received from Pepsi has been a tremendous blessing the past two years. Together with a few scholarships from UC I have been able to pay for tuition, food, and housing without taking out a single student loan, much to my relief and peace of mind.

I have two years left as an undergraduate at UC and then six months as a student teacher before I can apply for a teaching license. I am very thankful that the scholarship from PepsiAmericas will allow me to finish that time without student debt.

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