Mcdonald's new menu: McScholarship

In an announcement made by Mcdonald’s, the company will allot $500,000 for the establishment of Mconald’s/APIA Scholarship Program in partnership with Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (APIA). Fifty five APIA college students will receive the said scholarship program in furthering Mcdonald’s commitment to providing educational and career resources to bright future leaders.

15 four-year scholarships and 40 one-year scholarship will be awarded to deserving students this Spring 2020. In a data from APIA scholars, only 25% of Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Southeast Asian Americans have college degrees and the top 10% of APIAs earn more than ten times the bottom 10% of APIAs. This is one of the many reasons why this scholarship program is very crucial to these communities.

"McDonald's is very excited to launch the McDonald's APIA Scholarship program to give a platform for APIA students to achieve their higher education dreams," said William Cho, a Seattle McDonald's Owner/Operator. "We believe everyone deserves the chance to go to college, regardless of finances, and McDonald's is committed to making that happen,” he added.

In order to qualify for the scholarship, you must be able to meet the following requirements:

• Be of Asian and/or Pacific Islander ethnicity as defined by the U.S. Census
• Be a citizen, national, or legal permanent resident of the United States. Citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau are also eligible to apply
• Be enrolling as an undergraduate student in a U.S. accredited college or university in the Fall 2020
• Have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.7 on a 4.0 scale (unweighted) or have earned a GED
• Must apply for federal financial aid for the 2020-2021 academic year using the Free Application for the Federal Student Aid (FASFA) by early April 2020
• Submit one letter of recommendation online

On the other hand, McDonald’s also offers the HACER® National Scholarship for Hispanic students and the McDonald’s Black and Positively Golden Scholarships to students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

APIA Scholars was established in 2003 which is considered to be the nation’s largest non-profit organization that provides scholarships to APIAs with financial needs and has already awarded more than $150 million scholarships through the help of their partner institutions. 

The application for the McDonald’s/APIA Scholarship for academic year 2020-2021 is until January 22, 2020 at 5 p.m. EST. Applications can now be accessed at www.apiascholars.org/. Good luck, aspiring scholars!