If you have a teenager or teenagers who are going to college in the near future, or you're heading for college yourself, and you're trying to drum up money to pay for it and thinking about grants and scholarships, it's probably not the first place you'd think of going when you're trying to feed your bank account, but as it turns out, some fast food restaurants offer college scholarships.
So if you're hungry for college cash, here are some things to keep in mind if you go scouting for fast food scholarships.
Some fast food restaurants focus on employees, not customers. For instance, KFC had a scholarship for all high school seniors but changed it in 2013 to focus on helping employees and managers pursue college. Still, if your kid has a part-time job at KFC, well, if that's the case, you've probably already heard about the REACH Educational Grant Program.
And in 2014,
Other fast food restaurants offer scholarships to the public.
The Golden Arch's arch rival, Burger King, has been offering scholarships since 2010, and they, too, give an impressive amount of money, compared to their competitors, to deserving high school students.
The Burger King Mclamore Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Burger King Corporation, offers scholarships to students. Most are $1,000 but some have gone as high as $50,000, according to their website. They've been doing this since 2010, and in 2016, Burger King has awarded $3 million to more than 2,800 students in North America.
Other restaurants are more about honoring students, than paying for college. Not a bad thing to have on a college or a job application, though. If you're a school administrator, you may want to consider nominating a student for Wendy's High School Heisman award. Applicants need to be maintaining a GPA of 3.0 (a B average) or better. They need to have demonstrated that they're a leader and role model within their school and community, and they must have performed in at least one of the 43 school sponsored sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, or the National Federation of State High School Association.
Last year's winners of the Wendy's High School Heisman were National Honor Society members who were doing volunteer work and were captains on various sports teams, just to give you an idea of the caliber of student that they're looking for. In any case, the two high school seniors who won Wendy's High School Heisman award in 2016 came away with a $500 Wendy's gift card – and a $5,000 donation to their high school was made in their student's name.
Some fast food scholarships are looking for creativity. In 2014 and 2015, Chipotle began "Cultivating Thought," a program that offered an essay contest. As its web site states, "The winners were chosen based on the following criteria: originality, creativity, and quality of composition."
The essays were featured on their packaging, but the winners also received $20,000, deposited in a 529 college fund.
In conclusion and a stupid joke that we've all heard... So you never know what you might find when you're at your favorite fast food restaurant. Maybe some nourishment, a few laughs, and, yeah, maybe a little money to go toward college. And there's another good reason to look for scholarship money at a fast food restaurant, especially if you're going into the liberal arts. I'm sure you've heard that old joke that all liberal arts majors are familiar with. And I was one, too, so if you're a liberal arts major, I'm not making fun of you.
Anyway, it's the one where a college student who graduates with a science degree gets a job and asks questions every day like, "Why does it work?"
Then an engineer student goes into the real world and asks, "How does it work?"
But then the liberal arts student graduates and gets a job and asks: "You want fries with that?"
See? Apply for a fast food scholarship at the beginning of college, and someday you can complete the circle.
