Burger King's scholars get nearly US$1.8 million
Scholarships are being awarded by Burger King's Scholars Programme to 1,797 high school seniors in the US, coming from every state in the country, plus Canada and Puerto Rico. Each student is granted a US$1,000 scholarship for college or post-secondary vocational/technical school.
In its first three years, the programme has awarded US$3.76 million to deserving young students. Seniors throughout the US, Puerto Rico and Canada are eligible for the scholarships which are based on academic achievement, work experience, community service or co-curricular activities, and are also partly based upon financial need.
Local funding To provide the scholarship money, the firm's restaurants throughout the US participate in a variety of fundraising activities. Both company owned and franchisee restaurants participate, hosting everything from 'fry coupon' fundraisers to canister collections and newspaper sales. Funds raised regionally stay in that region to provide scholarships for local young people in need.
To determine scholarship recipients, the Burger King/McLamore Foundation works with high school principals and counsellors to identify students who meet the criteria for an award. To qualify, a high school senior must maintain a grade point average of 2.0 or above, work part-time (due to financial need) and be involved in some co-curricular or community service activities.
Awards In the year 2000 - its inaugural year - the programme awarded 885 scholarships of US$1,000 each. In 2001 the number of scholarships totalled 1,078. Now, including the 1,797 awards being given in 2002, the grand total of scholarships awarded will be US$3.76 million. The goal, by 2010, is to provide one scholarship every year for each of the firm's 8,000 restaurants in North America.
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