The Chick-fil-A Remarkable Futures Scholarship program recently presented Whitesville native Kaylee Meador with one of only 12 True Inspiration scholarships. Each year, the company offers team members from across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico the opportunity to apply for college scholarships through the program.
The esteemed True Inspiration scholarship is valued at $25,000 and will assist Meador in pursuing her educational and professional dreams of becoming a pharmacist. Meador said the scholarship opportunities are just one way Chick-fil-A exhibits how much they value their team members.
“Personally, this award shows how caring Chick-fil-A is to their employees and how much they value my education,” Meador said. “This award means that I can focus on my extracurricular activities, such as promoting clinical pharmacy as the president-elect of Student Societies of Health-System Pharmacy.”
With the scholarship comes an increase in opportunities for the young Meador, who is enrolled at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. While enrolled, she’s maintained a high GPA and completed nearly 600 community service hours in the past year.
“I can also now afford to visit a nonprofit clinic in Ecuador to serve patients with diverse cultural backgrounds,” she said. “Overall, this scholarship has opened many new opportunities while also relieving my financial concerns.”
Meador’s dedication to her studies first caught the attention of the franchise when her financial assistance fell through just 2 months before beginning pharmacy school, and she picked up extra hours at work to fund her education.
The scholarship also allows her to pursue her educational and long-term goals of becoming a licensed pharmacist with a Doctor of Pharmacy and Master of Business Administration, completing a 2-year specialty clinical pharmacy residency. She also desires to return to her hometown to innovate the tri-state’s healthcare.
Meador attributes much of her success to the compassionate learning environment fostered by Chick-fil-A.
“Chick-fil-A gave me the independence to learn how to approach situations and then provided feedback on my performance,” she said. “It’s an amazing learning environment that taught me how to communicate with and serve others. Chick-fil-A taught me the value of hard work through continual promotions and opportunities to prove myself as a leader.”
She added that her work experiences transformed her into an outgoing person who prioritizes others’ needs, and the examples set by her superiors propelled her growth as a professional.
“The semi-annual employee reviews allowed me to see where I could improve and gave me tangible goals on how to move forward,” Meador said. “Furthermore, every day, I worked alongside upper-level management and my operator, which allowed me to build strong connections with people that I can emulate.”
A release from the franchise indicates Chick-fil-A invested $24 million in restaurant team members’ higher education, awarding college scholarships to 12,699 Team Members in 46 states plus Washington, D.C., and Canada. Chick-fil-A offers two types of Remarkable Futures Scholarships, awarding 12 $25,000 True Inspiration Scholarships as well as Leadership Scholarships in the amounts of $1,000 and $2,500, which will be awarded to 12,687 team members this year.
A spokesperson for Chick-fil-A said their signature bottled sauces, available at select retailers nationwide, play a pivotal role in helping support the dreams of restaurant team members. For every retail store purchase of a 16-oz bottled sauce, 100% of the Chick-fil-A, Inc. royalties go towards the Remarkable Futures Scholarships initiative. Since the launch of Chick-fil-A bottled sauce in 2020, retail sales have contributed over $6.4 million to the program, making it possible to increase the number of scholarships awarded each year. This year, bottled sauce retail sales the restaurant to award 2,200 additional scholarships.
Meador works at Chick-fil-A Owensboro on Frederica Street, where she’s routinely praised for her strong work ethic and leadership skills. She’s grateful to the Owensboro and Daviess Community for their continued support.
