Kentucky Fried Chicken announced today that Amanda Russell, 17, from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, Calif., won a $20,000 KFC Colonel’s Scholars® scholarship thanks to a single tweet: “#KFCScholar Hey Colonel! Your scholarship's the secret ingredient missing from my recipe for success! Got the grades, drive, just need cash!”
KFC selected Russell’s tweet from more than 2,800 Twitter applicants. The 140-character entries ranged from the lyrical (#KFCScholar If you give a girl a drumstick, she'll want wings. Give her wings, she'll get a degree, take flight, and change the world) to the heartwarming (1st to go to college in my Family. KFC can be the 1st to change my future. Being the victorious #KFCScholar will feel S-O G-DOUBLE-O-D Good!). Tweets were judged on creativity and quality, compelling nature, entrepreneurial drive and display of desire to attend college.
“With such an overwhelming response, the judging was extremely difficult,” said John Cywinski, Chief Marketing and Food Innovation Officer for KFC. “While all entrants exemplified what it means to be a Colonel’s Scholar, Amanda displayed a combination of wit and drive that clearly stood out. We are very proud that she is our newest Scholar.”
Russell, the daughter of Michael and Anne Russell, is considering a medical career. She loves to scuba dive and volunteers at the Aquarium of the Pacific. In addition to being a stellar student with a 3.9 GPA, Russell is a member of her school’s swim team. Her parents are teachers and she has a 13-year-old brother and a 16-year-old sister.
“I am so excited. I just can’t believe it,” said Russell, who is a social media user but opened a Twitter account just to apply for the scholarship. She heard about the KFC scholarship offer on the local news and a scholarship web site.
Russell is eligible to receive up to $5,000 per year for the next four years to pursue a bachelor’s degree at an accredited public university within California. She is still deciding which school she will attend in the fall.
The thousands of other high school seniors who tried to tweet to win a KFC scholarship can still apply for a Colonel’s Scholar scholarship. Applications for 2011 are being accepted beginning today through Feb. 9. Seventy-four additional scholarships will be awarded for next year. Visit www.KFC.com or www.KFCscholars.org for more information.
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