College Station McDonalds employee earns bachelor’s degree through company program

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – A College Station fast food employee earned his bachelor’s degree in just a year and a half thanks to his company.

Joshua Winters, a Supervisor at McDonald’s on University Drive officially received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration for free. During a graduation party Tuesday, Winters told KBTX this degree was years in the making.

With a few credits already under his belt going into the program, he finished in just a year and a half while working full-time. Something Winters said he always thought was impossible.

“I completed a promise I made to my mother a long time ago. That’s the meaning, because I told her when I dropped out the first time ‘I’ll go back, I’ll finish just let me focus on work right now’ and so that’s the most important part to me, is because she’s very proud of it,” Winters said. “It was great because online that’s flexible times and you have a new week that starts every Tuesday and that just happened to be my day off at work. So I was able to do a lot of it on Tuesdays and then just check in at nighttime. It doesn’t matter if you do it at 10 o’clock at night or three in the morning. It’s whatever time is good for you.”

The Bryan, College Station and Huntsville McDonalds Franchise Owner and Operator, Jeanie Smith, says this program can benefit any employee whether it’s earning a degree online or receiving scholarships.

“It is all completely free to them. They can work at their own pace. They do it while they’re continuing to work for us and they earn their bachelor’s degree and can move on from there,” she said.

While Winters is the first graduate in her franchises, Smith says watching other employees go into the programs and succeed has been incredible to watch.

“It’s very gratifying. I’m so proud of them because they do have an opportunity that many of them might not have had otherwise and so I feel like not only am I helping them but I’m also helping myself,” she said.

Information about Archways to Opportunity can be found here. In this program, employees can sign up for online classes to earn a bachelor’s degree. Plus, high school and college students who work a minimum of 10 hours a week can sign up to receive $20,000 in scholarships per year.