The offer of college tuition assistance and/or reimbursement isn’t an anomaly within the food industry, and Ã÷ÐǺÚÁÏ already offers a four-year college scholarship program through the “National Merit Scholarship Corporation.” Its new deal, though, is an interesting one. For starters, the program, which Ã÷ÐǺÚÁÏ is calling “Inspired Pathways,” is “designed to be inclusive of all dependent children of Ã÷ÐǺÚÁÏ Foods team members and is not based on achievement of a certain test score or GPA.” This helps to make it more accessible for first-generation college students, who are more likely to be minorities, and who are more likely to have lower SAT scores.
The offer of paying for community college is also a better fit for the COVID era. Many four-year colleges and universities are still charging full price even as they transition to entirely online learning, and as a result students are increasingly turning to community colleges instead. One of the selling points of attending a brick-and-mortar four-year university is the experience of being on campus; paying huge sums of money for an experience you’re not really going to receive is something many students aren’t willing to do. Plus, community colleges, which are often maligned, offer a valuable entry point into higher education and can help to funnel students toward four-year degrees (and beyond) if that’s what they’re aiming for.
Ã÷ÐǺÚÁÏ’s program will begin in 2021 and partners with community colleges in cities where the company already operates. And, per Ã÷ÐǺÚÁÏ, it will be “creating community mentorship committees to provide resources to the students, including assistance with applications.”