Bridge to the future: More than 10,000 have graduated through Starbucks College Achievement Plan
We are proud to celebrate our next graduating class of the Starbucks College Achievement Plan (SCAP) where partners can earn their bachelor’s degree online from ASU – with 100% tuition coverage.
This SCAP class is our largest yet, and by this spring more than 10,000 partners have graduated through this program with their bachelor’s degree.
We are proud to support our partners as the achieve their aspirations – at Starbucks and beyond.
SCAP by the numbers
Nearly 1,000 graduates this May with 10,000+ graduates to date
23,000+ current participants with a goal of 25,000 total graduates by 2025
More than 140 degrees partners can choose from online
Nearly 90% of Starbucks stores in the U.S. have at least one partner in the program
Over 20% of SCAP scholars are first-generation college students
Meet Eric, Class of ’23
When Eric Savary graduated high school in 2003, he was sure of one thing: he did not want to go to college.
He had struggled in high school and didn’t apply himself, he said. So, with the memory of 9/11 still fresh and a desire to see and experience different things, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps. During his 12 years of service, he served as an infantryman and later as a mechanic and was deployed to Iraq and a number of other locations, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant E6.
He loved his career in the military but in 2015, chose to leave to move closer to his son, Dominic, who lived in York, Pennsylvania. He took a job at the Starbucks York Roasting Plant a year after the company had announced the Starbucks College Achievement Plan (SCAP), which offers eligible partners 100 percent upfront tuition coverage for a first-time bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online degree program.
DID YOU KNOW?
Many companies that offer tuition benefits provide up to the limit of $5,250 per year – but at Starbucks we offer the full tuition coverage upfront.
Savary decided it was time. “I thought, I'm going to show myself and prove that, yeah, I can be a good student. It's just a matter of applying myself and, you know, and being at an older age, I know what needs to be done.”
This week, Savary, now the third shift maintenance supervisor, will become one of the more than 10,000 Starbucks partners to have graduated with a degree through SCAP. Savary, who earned bachelor‘s degree in operations management, is part of the largest SCAP class yet.
More than 23,000 partners across the United States are currently participating in the program and nearly 90 percent of Starbucks stores have one or more partners in the program, said Becky Frisch, SCAP program manager.
Partners whose previous academic history meant they weren’t admissible to ASU move directly into Pathway to Admission, which gives partners the ability to work toward admission into ASU, with credit conversion costs fully covered.
“Everyone has a path,” Frisch said. “You go through the admissions process and you’re either admitted (to ASU) or you are offered Pathway to Admission. Through our partnership with ASU, all partners are provided a pathway to reach their goal of earning a degree.”
Frisch herself is an SCAP student and will be graduating in December with a bachelor’s of fine arts in digital photography, one of over 140 online degree programs that Starbucks partners can choose from. Partners decide to pursue a degree for a host of reasons, she said. Some want to explore something they are interested in. Others might have always wanted to go to college but couldn’t afford it.
DID YOU KNOW?
Starbucks partners who are serving or have served in the U.S. military can extend an additional SCAP benefit to a family member of their choice.
For Savary, a number of driving factors were behind his choice to get a degree – three specifically. His sons Dominic, now 13 and Kohan, who is 5, and daughter Rayna, age 2.
In his children, Savary sees the future. He wants his kids to have more opportunities in life than he was given – and he hopes that while he’s been working full–time and studying, he’s also been teaching them the importance of perseverance. He knows that the most important things in life usually don’t happen in big, dramatic ways, but are built upon countless smaller moments, one step at a time, one class at a time.
“I want to show them that you can get through anything if you try – anything is possible,” he said. “Education is something that no one can ever take from you.”
