Chick-Fil-A is known for their delicious chicken sandwiches, goofy cow mascots, and their family-oriented approach to team members. However, you might not know that the company offers Chick-Fil-A scholarship awards to their team members.
Every employer can win a college scholarship up to $25,000, and the eligibility and requirements differ for the two scholarships available— this article will explore them both. The first requirement is that you have to work at Chick-Fil-A.
If you are a team member and want to further your education, this information will be helpful to you. We will look at both scholarships, find out how to qualify, the eligibility requirements, and how to apply.
If you are ready to go back to school, continue school, or interested in learning how your employer can help you pay for it, read on.
What is the Chick-Fil-A Scholarship?
The Chick-Fil-A scholarship comes in two varieties, which are called “Remarkable Futures”. However, individually they are named the True Inspiration scholarship and the Leadership scholarship.
In the past, Chick-Fil-A has awarded over 5700 team members with funding. As long as you are a current Chick-Fil-A employee, you can qualify for one of the two awards.
The True Inspiration Scholarship
The True Inspiration scholarship awards $25,000 to its recipients for use in a two- or four-year college or university as well as technical, vocational or online schools as long as the school is accredited. You will have to meet certain eligibility requirements, which will be explained later.
The Leadership Scholarship
The Leadership Scholarship is an award of $2,500 given to those that qualify. The requirements aren’t as strict as those for the True Inspiration scholarship, but will still need to be met and maintained until the award is given.
If that wasn’t enough, the Chick-Fil-A Scholarship isn’t all that the company offers. They give tuition discounts through various accredited schools around the country. You can find out which institutions are applicable and how to apply for the discount by visiting their web page.
Even better, you can go to school for whatever you want. Chick-Fil-A doesn’t have any requirements for the field of study you choose. The winners of the award can use it for a two-year or four-year college or university, online courses, or a vocational/technical school!
When Did The Chick-Fil-A Scholarship Program Begin?
Founder Truett Cathy began offering scholarships back in 1973 as an incentive to his employees. Since that time, more than 47,000 Chick-Fil-A team members have won $60.5 million in funding!
Actually, Chick-Fil-A’s president Tim Tassopoulos was a scholarship recipient as well. He started working for the company as a teen and won the Chick-Fil-A Leadership scholarship to help pay for college. That’s good news for all employees and an inspiring story for anyone who has a vision of making their dreams come true!
Who are the Scholarships For?
The Chick-Fil-A Scholarship is only open to eligible employees of Chick-Fil-A franchisees, team members of Chick-fil-A, Inc. restaurants, and team members of STC Brand restaurants.
You must be employed at the time of application as well as at the time of the award. Once the scholarship has been given, there aren’t any employment requirements. On the other hand, if you choose to leave the Chick-Fil-A team before the funding is given you will forfeit the award. However, most winners will stay on as crew members throughout their years of study at college.
The company will work with schedules as well as vacation time and other schedule conflicts to help the employee succeed in school.
Eligible employees who win the Chick-Fil-A scholarship can use the monies at any accredited school. This includes two and four-year colleges and universities, technical schools, trade schools, vocational schools, and web-based institutions.
There are multiple awards each year, totaling over $13 million in scholarships.
Luckily, even if you don’t win a scholarship the company will still help you with your college education. Chick-Fil-A members get a 30 percent discount at 100 colleges and universities across the United States because of the partnerships with Chick-Fil-A and the schools. Plus, the tuition discounts can be combined with the scholarships. It’s a win-win!
How to Apply:
The two Chick-Fil-A Scholarship awards are slightly different in their requirements but are similar in structure. We will cover each one here.
The requirements for the True Inspiration scholarship ($25,000) are:
- Be a current employee of a Chick-Fil-A branded restaurant.
- A current student in a graduate or postgraduate schooling, or
- Plan to be a student in a graduate or postgraduate school.
- Have a 12-month history of community involvement in each of the 12 months before application.
- Maintain a current grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
- Have a recommendation from an Operator or manager.
- Able to demonstrate financial need for the scholarship amount.
If you meet all of these requirements, you can proceed to the application process and begin submitting your application for consideration of the award.
For those interested in the Leadership Scholarship ($2,500), the requirements are:
- Be a current employee of a Chick-Fil-A branded restaurant.
- A current student in a graduate or postgraduate schooling, or
- Plan to be a student in a graduate or postgraduate school.
- Have a 12-month history of community involvement in each of the 12 months before application.
- Maintain a current grade point average (GPA) of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale.
- Have a recommendation from an Operator or manager.
The main differences between the two scholarship requirements is that you must have a higher GPA and show financial need for the True Inspiration scholarship. The Leadership Scholarship requires a lower GPA (2.5 instead of 3.0), and you must show the need for the sum.
You can apply through a couple of sources and each restaurant equipped with the Chick-Fil-A web portal computer and employee login will have links to the application. If you do not have this access, you can apply online at the Chick-Fil-A website.
Before starting the application process, you should have your recommendation, high school transcripts, work history, community service history, and other pertinent documents ready to upload.
The application isn’t very difficult or lengthy, though you will be required to fill out the forms in their entirety and supply all documents as requested, including proper format.
When you have everything ready, you can create an account, log in and begin the application process. There are resources available through the employee portal to assist you in filling out the application.
Once you are completed, you will submit the application and will receive an email stating the application was received. If you do not receive the confirmation, you will need to contact the scholarship board members to find out if it was received and what to do in the event it was not.
All of the contact information will be found alongside the application once the employee is logged in.
What are the Deadlines??
The open enrollment times change slightly from year to year, so you will have to be on the lookout for open and closing dates.
However, in most circumstances, the scholarships open in the Fall, each year and will run until December or January. The website will have an announcement (like this one) when the application process is open and when it is closed for the year.
You can reapply every year so long as you haven’t been a prior winner. If you apply and do not get the award, you can reapply the following year. There is no time limit or limit on the number of entries, except you may only apply once per year.
If you are a winner of the True Inspiration scholarship, you will not be eligible to win again in subsequent years, though, once you win you cannot apply again.
As long as you meet the requirements for the Leadership Scholarship, you can apply and win each year you are actively enrolled in school. There is a maximum award of $10,000 lifetime, though, so if you win four times (one a year for four years), you will not be able to apply again.
More Good News About The Funding
Not only does Chick-Fil-A offer tuition discounts at many colleges and universities around the country, but they also offer two annual scholarships.
The True Inspiration scholarship is a one time award of $25,000 towards tuition and books at any two or four-year college. You can also apply the scholarship to any technical schools, vocational schools, trade schools or web-based schools you like.
The Leadership Scholarship is a $2,500 award for the same school restrictions as the True Inspiration scholarship. However, you can win the award up to four times as long as you are an employee and are enrolled in school while continuing to apply and win the award.
The requirements are minimal with the biggest factors being that you must be a Chick-Fil-A employee, maintain community service for 12 months before applying and have a recommendation from an Operator or Manager in your store.
Chick-Fil-A wants their team members to continue to grow, personally, and financially while continuing their education. By offering over $13 million per year in scholarships, they are helping their employees do just that.
With a family first orientation and great customer service, Chick-Fil-A continues their excellence around the country by expanding the hopes, dreams and life choices of their employees.
Final Thoughts On The Chick-Fil-A Scholarship
Chick-Fil-A is well-known for its excellent customer service and exceptional quality of food. If you are an employee of this amazing company, you’re in for a treat. It feels good to be apart of a team that helps its employees and cares about their futures. Sometimes all a person needs is a group of supportive people behind them to make their dreams come true. The good thing is, Chick-Fil-A is a reputable company that you can count on. They go above and beyond for their employees, which is enough to make any worker proud to be apart of the team. If you’re employed by Chick-Fil-A, go ahead and apply for the scholarship, you don’t have anything to lose!
Chick-fil-A Foundation
After the launch of Chick-fil-A in 1946, Truett Cathy, the founder and former president of Chick-fil-A, realized that he could use his company to help people. He started by giving college scholarships to Atlanta area students with exceptional leadership abilities, a strong work ethic and many hours of community service, in order to fulfill the dream of a college education.
In the early 1990s, S. Truett Cathy and his family created the Chick-fil-A Foundation. The foundation is a non-profit organization that has been providing scholarship funds to thousands of students every year. Provided funds can be used at college or a vocational-technical school as long as it is an accredited institution.
Its mission is to provide many types of scholarships to thousands of deserving students each year, with an emphasis on those who are active in their Christian faith or who have demonstrated a commitment to education as a means for social mobility.
Changing Employees and their Futures
Over the years, the foundation and Chick-fil-A have played a pivotal role in developing career opportunities by reviewing many scholarship applications each academic year and contributing to the personal success of restaurant team members. The foundation has given away a total investment of $1 billion in scholarship opportunities and other educational assistance for employees with enormous potential regardless of their particular area of study.
Company employees at Chick-fil-A receive exceptional educational opportunities and your fellow team members are their to support scholarship winners. Not only is Chi\ck-fil-A a leader in the restaurant business, but they are ready to play a small part in each restaurant team members’ higher education by providing college scholarship money reducing the need for financial aid. Many restaurant employees come back to Chick-fil-A with the hope of becoming an executive general manager and playing a significant role in the growth of the company.
