Like tea with honey, working at Starbucks has just gotten a little sweeter thanks to a new program that promises to pay employees’ college tuition during their junior and senior years.
The company’s new College Achievement Program is being offered in collaboration with Arizona State University through the university’s online degree programs.
The initiative is about providing “hope and opportunity” at a time when educational inequalities persist between rich and poor, Starbucks president and CEO Howard Schultz said in announcing the program Monday.
“This is not about PR,” Schultz said during an emotional company meeting at The Times Center in New York City that featured a few hundred select employees and managers — many of whom spoke about how “life” had gotten in the way of their college dreams and how thankful they were that their employer planned to pick up the tab on the last half of their four-year degrees.
“This is about the future of our company doing what’s right for our people and sending a message … that we can’t be a great company, a great enduring country, if we’re constantly leaving people behind,” Schultz said.
While the bachelor’s-degree-holding Starbucks barista has become emblematic of what some argue is the questionable value of a college degree, ASU president Michael Crow said the new Starbucks college program is about more than getting a degree to find a job.
“It’s unfortunate that people think of educational attainment as only some pathway to a job,” Crow said. “It’s about you finding a way to take your mind and your body and your spirit wherever you want to go.”
