Each scholarship is a prestigious, merit-based
award worth five figures and available to high schoolers across the nation. With this support, Lufungulo is
pursuing two defining passions, coding and acting, as a first-year Computer Science and Drama and Theatre Arts
student at Columbia
University, New York.
Her takeaway from this winning streak? “You do not have to be the best at something to put your foot forward.”
The Toledo, Ohio native comes from a household of learners. Her mother, an academic with a PhD in electrical
engineering, introduced her to science when she was in elementary school.
“You do not have to be the best at something to put your foot forward.”
"All I heard as a girl was, STEM, STEM, STEM,” Lufungulo said. In seventh grade, she created a spreadsheet mapping
her route to college. In eighth grade, she took her first college computer
science course at the University of Toledo, Ohio.
The following year, at a program for high schoolers called Google Code Next, she learned to use code to make a personal website –
and music – from Google
software engineers.
There, she realized something pivotal: she did not need to choose between her commitment to computer science and
her desire for artistic expression.
With code, “I learned that you can make beats,” she said. She could also make a positive social impact, whether
by creating an app or by correcting computational bias. “I was able to see the diversity within the field itself.”
That’s also when she started watching college decision reaction videos, looking up admitted students, and taking
note of the scholarships they had won. In this way, she came by the Coca-Cola Scholars program, a scholarship for
promising students who demonstrate an outstanding commitment to community
service.
“I really want to get that. I really want to win that,” she thought.
As a high school student, Lufungulo threw herself into musical theater, community service – she was the president
of her school’s African American club, where she focused on uplifting Black
students at a primarily white school – and scholarship applications while continuing to code.
She turned to Scholarships.com to find awards, using the site to filter scholarships for which she qualified. “I
was really dedicated,” she said. “What motivated me was making my own college and decision reaction video, and just
seeing the reward of my hard work and dedication.”
Imanga shared tips on applying to
scholarships and college on TikTok, and recommended that students use scholarship search platforms such as
Scholarships.com to find ways to pay for college.
And, after some hesitation, she took a shot at the Coca-Cola Scholarship.
Past winners include a National Security Advisor and several U.S. representatives; students who won in recent
years boast an intimidating list of achievements.
“I felt like I was throwing a needle in a haystack,” she said. “I genuinely felt like there was no way, and had
no faith that I was going to advance at all.” Still, she thought she should give it a try.
During a musical rehearsal break in October of her senior
year of high school, while drinking a Coca Cola and scrolling through Instagram, she saw someone post that
they hadn’t won. She’d heard no news, and had to check her spam folder to find out that she’d made it to the
next round. She jumped up from her chair: “no way am I a semi-finalist … I was in awe.”
Lufungulo made it through two more rounds over the course of several months before finding out that she had
won. She celebrated with her family over food: “I was really, really happy.”
“The person who wins isn't always the best person, but the person who actually has the confidence in
themselves and believes in themselves to do it. So just go for it. You miss 100% of the chances you don't take.”
Soon, college offers began to come in. Some schools, such as UNC Chapel Hill, offered her a full
ride. Her dream school, Columbia, did not.
Columbia was her first choice because its academic program would allow her to grow both as a computer scientist and
as an actor. Each passion could enhance the other instead of canceling it out. And “who wouldn’t want the
opportunity to live in New York City?”
Knowing how much it meant to her, her parents nudged her to enrol. They would find a way to pay for it.
Soon after, Lufungulo won the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship. “I showed my parents; that was the one that they
were really excited for,” she said. “They were just so happy that all that hard work was actually worth something.”
As a first-year student at Columbia, Lufungulo is navigating the complexities of living in a high-pressure
environment alongside high-achieving peers. The community and benefits provided by her scholarships have made this
a bit easier.
While many Columbia students know classmates who went to the same high school as them, Lufungulo was the only
student from her town in her college class. Meeting other Coca-Cola and Amazon scholars helped ease the
transition.
It can also be easy to get swept up in the university’s culture of competing for internships. However, thanks to
the Amazon Future Engineering Scholarship, which guarantees an internship placement after the first year of
college, Lufungulo does not have to worry about it. “I'm just so grateful that I didn't have to be a part of
that,” she said.
Instead, she brings her notebook to plays, observing actors hone their craft.
She recently attended a departmental production of Fefu and her Friends by María Irene Fornés at Barnard College
and a new off-Broadway play. She is also a member of Columbia’s Black Theater Ensemble.
These experiences have cemented her desire to act, as has bumping into peers whom she watched on Disney Channel or
Netflix growing up.
“They can do it, I see them every day, we’re in the same place, so I can do it too,” she said. She hopes to break
into the film industry by senior year, and is already thinking about how to raise the funds for it.
Midway through the spring semester, Lufungulo won the Taco Bell Live Más scholarship, which is awarded directly to
students and lowers the cost of attendance after aid.
Her advice to students applying for scholarships is not to underestimate the value of small awards, to keep
applying during school breaks – “apply, apply, apply” – and, most importantly, to believe in themselves;
particularly when self-doubt creeps in.
“The person who wins isn't always the best person, but the person who actually has the confidence in themselves and
believes in themselves to do it. So just go for it. You miss 100% of the chances you don't take.”
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