Lone Star College-Tomball student Jessica Kivlehen has been selected as a 2016 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholar. Kivlehen was one of only 200 recipients to receive this award out of a pool of over 1,100 applicants.

"Being chosen as one of the Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise is an amazing acknowledgement of the work I have done to improve my life and my community. It is also an encouragement to believe in myself, and in the path that I have chosen. The path of academic excellence and civic service," Kivlehen said. She hopes transfer to the University of Texas at Austin and earn a bachelor’s degree in political science.

Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, the national honor society of two-year colleges, administers the Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholars. Scholarship winners are selected based on outstanding academic achievement and demonstrated leadership potential. A panel of independent judges review the applications and select the recipients.

The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation awards each recipient a $1,000 scholarship, totaling $200,000. Twenty-five of these scholarships are earmarked for Phi Theta Kappa members who are military veterans or active personnel.

Kivlehen serves as the vice president of communications for Alpha Rho Mu, the LSC-Tomball chapter of Phi Theta Kappa as well as the vice president of events for the Honor’s College. Along with spending time with her husband Charles and daughter Alessa, she enjoys music, horror movies, and is an avid gamer. Her long term plan is to one day become a political campaign manager and event coordinator, while also dedicating time to provide consultancy to non-profits.

Phi Theta Kappa, headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, is the largest honor society in higher education with 1,285 chapters on college campuses in all 50 of the United States, U.S. territorial possessions and eight sovereign nations. For the last two years, Alpha Rho Mu has been selected as the most outstanding international PTK delegation.