Kohl's Scholarship Winners Announced

Four children from the Atlanta area, including Alpharetta and Duluth, have received Kohl’s Cares Scholarships. They were chosen from more than 35,000 nominees nationwide for making a positive impact in their local communities. 

Atlanta-area recipients of $1,000 scholarships are:

• Mackenzie Bearup, 18, Alpharetta – Mackenzie founded Sheltering Books Inc., an organization that has collected and donated more than 100,000 books to children in homeless shelters in 35 states and underprivileged school children in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. 
• Remington Youngblood, 11, Duluth – In 2011, Remington created Change 4 Georgia, an organization that benefits active service members and has spent more than 120 hours coordinating and collecting needed items to send to troops overseas. 
  
• Andrea Kezh, 11, Decatur – Born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate, Andrea has undergone several reconstructive surgeries. To help children in underprivileged areas afflicted with a cleft lip and palate, Andrea has raised more than $30,000 for Smile Train to help fund the necessary surgeries and improve lives.
• Ugonna Ume, 17, Lithonia – Ugonna created the Stephenson Outreach Program to coordinate, organize and recruit students at her school to volunteer including collecting and donating enough food to feed more than 200 families over Thanksgiving.

Through the Kohl’s Cares Scholarship Program, Kohl's is encouraging promising youth to further their education at a time when college costs have risen approximately seven percent per year for decades.

“Kohl’s is honored to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of the more than 200 regional level Kohl’s Cares Scholarship Program winners this year,” said Julie Gardner, Kohl’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “From collecting books for underprivileged children to fundraising for a community food bank, the efforts of these kids are undoubtedly making our communities better places to live and it is a pleasure to recognize and thank them for their work.” 

Winners are chosen based on initiative, leadership, generosity and project benefits and outcomes. Each regional-level winner qualifies for one of Kohl’s 10 national scholarships, which will be announced at the end of July. National winners will each receive a total of $10,000 in scholarships and Kohl’s will donate $1,000 to a nonprofit organization on each national winner’s behalf. In total, Kohl’s will recognize more than 2,200 young volunteers with more than $420,000 in scholarships and prizes.