Chick-Fil-A employee receives $25,000 scholarship

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – One Chick-fil-A employee at the Jones Crossing location in College Station got a big surprise on Thursday while he was working his shift.

Caden Rainwater, the recipient and a student at Texas A&M University, was awarded a $25,000 scholarship to help him continue his education. He is just one of 14 Chick-fil-A employees in North America to receive the True Inspiration Scholarship. Rainwater is working on a degree in business management.

The scholarship came as a total surprise for Rainwater who knew the restaurant’s CEO, Andrew Cathy was coming to his location on Thursday, but he didn’t realize why. Rainwater said he normally doesn’t work Thursday nights and was kind of disappointed when his shift changed originally, but now it’s become a special moment.

“I was like aw, I’m missing out on seeing some friends, but they came to me,” Rainwater said. “Seeing a lot of people around me from my church, from my fraternity, just from my overall friends and my dad, just seeing that they care for me, they love me, and they are excited for me is such a comforting thought.”

Chick-fil-A’s Jones Crossing manager, Wes Kilcrease, said Rainwater embodies what Chick-fil-A is all about.

“Stewardship, caring for the people who walk through the door, caring for his team,” Kilcrease said. “He’s always looking for ways to help and reach out with that helping and caring hand. He leads by example. You never have to wonder if Caden is going to show up to work or work hard when he’s here. He’s leading the pack in that.”

Cathy said Chick-fil-A is excited to make a difference in the lives of their team members, and Caden had many of the qualities they were looking for when determining recipients.

“Real excited for him because of the leadership that he’s had, he’s so plugged into his community, very involved in giving back, shows a lot of leadership examples that we are looking for, and somebody that got aspirations for the future and so we wanted to come alongside and give this scholarship to Caden,” Cathy said.

After he graduates, Rainwater plans to join Chick-fil-A’s Leadership Development Program and become a local owner and operator of his very own Chick-fil-A restaurant.

“Chick-fil-A has structured the operator position for so much freedom, so much freedom to bless your employees and let them know they are loved,” Caden said. “Being a Chick-fil-A operator provides the simplest and most structured path to letting people know they’re loved and cared for. I want to be an operator because I want to love people.”

While the scholarship may be limited to only 14 people, the company has plans to award more than $26 million to more than 14,000 Team Members across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico.

“Exciting to see just the excitement on his face and knowing the impact that’s going to have is incredibly touching,” Cathy said. “It’s really more of the reasons that we’re in business, it’s more than just selling chicken but we want to use it in a way to impact the lives of people who work in our restaurants and the customers they serve.”

Rainwater was still processing the moment that he said was a very well-kept secret.

“It’s the world, my parents currently have three kids in college all at the same time, so just this check, this opportunity gives us so much freedom whether we have car problems, house problems, hazard pay problems just this check can finally gives me the opportunity to slow down, focus on a lot of schooling, focus on the people around me. A lot has been given to me and because of that, I expect to pour out.”

Cathy said Chick-fil-A plans to give out 50,000 scholarships between 2025 and 2030.