In the wild and wide world of fast food, Chick-Fil-A is a chain synonymous with great chicken sandwiches, amazing customer service, and being closed on Sundays. The 14 billion dollars USD fast-food chain is loved not only by its loyal patrons but also by its many employees. This is thanks to the various employee benefits they have. To this date, Chick-Fil-A has awarded a whopping $136+ million in the form of scholarships to their employees across the USA. One such amazing benefit of being an employee at Chick-Fil-A is their college scholarship programs. In this article we shall see Does Chick-Fil-A Pay For College?
Once a year, around spring all employees stand a chance of being awarded a scholarship. Any person currently employed at a Chick-Fil-A, irrespective of how long they have been with the franchise can apply for one of the two scholarships; the Leadership Scholarship and the True Inspiration Scholarship that they offer and stand to be awarded anywhere between $2,500 to $25,000 respectively to help them pay for college, higher education, degree programs, and more.
This scholarship can even be applied to online courses and online degree programs. For every year of their academic career, restaurant team members can apply for the Leadership scholarship program. By doing so, they can have a chance of winning $10,000 dollars. The True Inspiration Scholarship gives Chick-Fil-A team members a one-time opportunity of winning twenty-five thousand dollars.
Leadership Scholarship
The Leadership Scholarship is open to any and every Chick-Fil-A employee at any of the participating locations. This scholarship presents a chance of winning $1000 to $2,500 per academic year for a total of ten thousand dollars. Any student who has completed school and is currently either enrolled in an undergraduate, post-graduate, or online program or is planning to do so and is employed at a Chick-Fil-A at the time of application and at the time of announcement of the result is allowed to apply for this role.
Another important eligibility criterion is to have a minimum of 2.0 average point GPA on a 4.0-grade point average scale. These scholarships are awarded based on an employee’s social impact in their local communities, their leadership skills, and financial needs. This scholarship can be extended every year of study and can amount to a total of $10,000.
True Inspiration Scholarship
Unlike the Leadership Scholarship, the True Inspiration Scholarship gives any team member of a Chick-Fil-A restaurant who is currently employed at a franchise or Chick-Fil-A operated restaurant or any STC brand restaurant, a chance of being awarded a one-time sum of $25,000. This award can be used for graduate school, undergrad, postgrad, books, and more. Just like the other scholarship program, every Chick-Fil-A employee is eligible for this scholarship as well, as long as they meet the application criteria.
While you can re-apply for the Leadership Scholarship for every year of your academic studies, you can’t do the same for the True Inspiration Scholarship. For a chance at the True inspiration scholarship, employees are required to have a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale grade point average. They can choose to study in any two or four years accredited college program. In order to be eligible, the employees must demonstrate contribution to the community and their involvement in aiding their localities over the past 12 months, both inside and outside the restaurants leading up to the application submissions. They also need to be able to showcase financial needs.
Applicants don’t need to apply individually to the different scholarship programs. All applications are initially screened for the True Inspiration Scholarship and if rejected they are then considered for the Leadership Scholarship.
Eligibility criteria for the scholarships
Any employee who is currently working at a franchise, company-owned, or STC brand restaurant is eligible to apply for these scholarships. They also need to be employed at the time of awarding these scholarships. The employee must be an undergraduate who has complained about his high school education, is enrolled in a program, or planning to enroll in a degree program.
One must also meet the GPA criteria whereby, a minimum average GPA of 2.0 and 3.0 is necessary depending on the scholarship program, All applicants are initially considered for the True Inspiration scholarship program. If they aren’t selected for that, they are then considered for the Leadership scholarship. You can learn more about eligibility on their official site by clicking here.
FAQs
Where can the scholarship amount be used?
The scholarship can be used to apply for any two-year or four-year degree program. The scholarship grant can also be used to pay for tuition, books, and study material. The awarded grant, however, cannot be used for paying back student loans.
How many people are selected for this scholarship?
Chick-Fil-A selects up to two people per region for their True Inspiration Scholarship. On the other the number of Leadership scholarships varies, like for example in 2020, Chick-Fil-A awarded a total of 6,688 leadership scholarships.
What are the criteria for acceptance?
The decision of awarding the scholarship is made on a merit basis only. All the applications are screened and only the applicants who meet all the eligibility criteria are considered.
When will you receive the scholarship amount?
The applications for the scholarships are usually open in the spring. Even though the application dates vary they generally start around November and end around February. Once selected, the winning team members can expect the amount to be sent to their educational institutes at the start of the next academic year.
Chick-Fil-A has been a pioneer and industry leader when it comes to doing the best for their employees and these scholarships are just an example of how they help their employees secure their future. Along with these two scholarship programs, they also have a Tuition reduction for all the Chick-Fil-A team members.
This allows team members to study at various colleges for reduced tuition rates. This is possible thanks to their partnership with Scholarship Americas which allows them to provide reduced tuition at a staggering 108 colleges across America including prestigious universities such as Boston University and Purdue University. This program can also be extended to family members of Chick-Fil-A employees under certain circumstances.
