Starbucks offers 100 percent tuition coverage for its employees through innovative partnership with Arizona State University

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Rosny Hang marvels at how far she’s come. She remembers a time when she had trouble just printing files and adjusting the brightness on her computer screen. This spring, when she graduates with a Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in geographic information science and geography, she’ll be well-versed in programming languages like Python and RStudio.

“I am someone who was considered technologically challenged,” says Hang, 33, a Starbucks shift supervisor in Diamond Bar, California. “Going from that to be able to read code and program, and make maps out of the coding I’m doing, that’s crazy for me, a huge milestone.

“That’s the biggest lesson I took away from all this, that I was more capable than I thought.”

This May, Starbucks is proud to celebrate partners (employees) like Hang, who’ve shown so much dedication and perseverance to become part of the largest-ever graduating class through the <a href="https://starbucks.asu.edu/faq">Starbucks College Achievement Plan</a> (SCAP), more than 700 scholars strong. Starbucks offers 100 percent tuition coverage for benefits-eligible partners through Arizona State University’s online degree programs.

Since the program’s inception in 2014, more than 6,500 partners have earned first-time bachelor’s degrees.

That Hang has made it this far is a testament to her family, she says, especially her parents, who met and married at a refugee camp in Thailand after escaping the genocide in Cambodia that killed an estimated two million people in the 1970s. Hang’s oldest sister, now an accountant, was born at the camp. They moved into a rough neighborhood in Long Beach, California, where many people – their family included – struggled amidst violence, gangs and poverty.

Hang spent her 20s in and out of school, not sure what she wanted and “not fully focused.” In 2015, she learned about SCAP while working at a bookstore; she was organizing loose magazines when she noticed and read an article about the program. &nbsp;

It felt like a sign, Hang remembers. She wanted more education but was concerned about the cost. She knew she could do more but didn’t have a clear path. SCAP became an answer, and within weeks, she’d quit the bookstore and begun working at the Starbucks next door.

“Starbucks gave me a second chance to try and get to my goals,” Hang says. “I’m realizing my own journey in education is at my pace, not at somebody else’s.”

A friend who worked as a shift supervisor, finishing her own SCAP journey, modeled a positive work ethic and dedication to learning. Hang began attending local STEM conferences with her younger brother, who earned a mechanical engineering degree and is now working in the aerospace industry. She connected with professionals and other students and discovered jobs and opportunities she’d never even known existed.

Now, Hang hopes to use her degree to land a job as a data analyst at Starbucks, though there’s no requirement for SCAP graduates to remain with the company. She can also see herself doing research, education or environmental stewardship with the National Park Service or an organization like the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. She loves the outdoors and goes camping and backpacking as often as she can.

For graduation, which will be held virtually due to COVID-19, she’s purchased a traditional Cambodian dress, which she’ll wear under her cap and gown. It’s both a reminder of her heritage and a sign of respect for her parents’ journey and sacrifice.

“It’s been a long road for all of us,” Hang says. “This is what my parents worked for. They put that struggle in to see us graduate and to provide for ourselves. Now we can take care of them, and we can take care of each other as a family. That was one of my motivations to keep going, to wear my cap and gown for my parents.”

‘I know I can change people’s lives through our mission and values’

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Jessie Torres Barragan remembers the day the world opened up to him.

He was a Starbucks store manager in 2018 when he attended an event fair for partners to learn about SCAP. There, other store managers, including some with busy drive-thru stores and some with families, shared their stories of earning their degree online through Arizona State University. All were on the cusp of graduating.

“I thought, well, if they can, so can I,” he remembers. &nbsp;

Torres Barragan, now a Starbucks district manager in Charlotte, North Carolina, had never thought college would be for him. Neither of his parents attended school past eighth grade. When he was growing up, money was scarce. For more than a decade, the family of seven lived in a one-bedroom apartment in the Los Angeles area; his parents slept in the living room and all the kids, in the bedroom.

School was a struggle, and he says he might not have graduated from high school if it hadn’t been for two teachers who went out of their way to make sure he did. As far as college? “I didn’t think college would be something that was for me. We knew it was expensive and we couldn’t afford it.”

Still, he tried. Over the next few years, he enrolled in three different colleges, but had to drop out each time because there wasn’t money to pay for it. Instead, he focused on restaurant work, eventually getting hired as a barista at Starbucks in 2014 and working his way up.

Serving his community – not just his customers but all who live in the area – has always been a priority.

“Community is everything,” says Torres Barragan, 31. “My parents had to depend on community. We wouldn’t have had food on the table.”

After he enrolled in SCAP he saw the program as not just a path for him, but for others who had struggled as he had. “Growing up poor, with the mindset of people telling me ‘You’re never going to amount to anything, you’re Latino, you’re Mexican, you are gay.’ … I just thought there must be a child who is going through something similar,” he says.

He started visiting nearby high schools, encouraging seniors to apply when positions were open and talking to them about how Starbucks was not just a paycheck, but a way to a better life. At one point, more high school students worked at his store than any other in his district, having come because of the possibility of SCAP.

Last year, Torres Barragan was well on his way to earning his degree when COVID-19 changed everything. At the time, he was managing a busy store in Virginia, one of the only ones still open because it had a drive thru. The line of cars backed up for miles. His work weeks were long, and he had classes and homework on top of that. Exhausted, he considered pausing his schooling. “But it was truly something where I knew I just had to complete it. My mind was like, I cannot give up.”

After he graduates, he plans to use his degree in organizational leadership right where he earned it – at Starbucks. Two months ago, he was promoted to district manager and moved to North Carolina where he leads partners at 11 stores.

“I always wondered what my legacy would be,&nbsp;and now I know I&nbsp;can&nbsp;change people's&nbsp;lives through our mission and values and&nbsp;share&nbsp;the opportunity as it was done for me,” he says. “My future is endless now.”

Long before the pandemic struck, Wilmarah Quezada thought she wanted to work as an accountant, or maybe in human resources. It fit with her worldview at the time; she sought financial security and stability.

But the last year has caused a lot of people to rethink their values, including Quezada, who plans to pursue a career in the medical field after graduating from SCAP this spring. Though her degree is in organizational leadership, she’s spent the last year taking as many pre-requisites as possible to apply for graduate school to become a physician assistant.

“I wanted to go a different route, I wanted to work in medicine and I wanted to help people more directly,” says Quezada, 25, a Starbucks barista in Bethesda, Maryland. “I want to work in underserved communities where there aren’t many Spanish-speaking health providers.”

As much of society shut down during COVID-19, she was struck by how those in the medical field – including one friend who is an anesthesiologist and another who’s a registered nurse – were still showing up on the front lines. “They were literally putting their life on the line,” she says. “Seeing how people were dying, it made me want to help.”

She’s already certified as an emergency medical technician and hopes to spend the next year gaining as much experience as possible – either in volunteer roles or through a hospital.

Born in Puerto Rico, Quezada is the oldest of three sisters who moved to Massachusetts with her parents when she was 6 years old, in search of better opportunities and eager to leave behind a bad neighborhood. But after a young man who lived across the street was shot, in their new community, they moved again, to rural Pennsylvania.&nbsp;

She tried community college and found lots of work opportunities, but nothing stuck. She was “terrified of student loans” and reluctant to transfer to a bigger university. About four years ago, she discovered SCAP and enrolled at ASU.

A transformational moment – the initial seeds for her pivot – came when she visited Colombia with an international business class she was taking at ASU, several months before the outbreak had spread worldwide. Though the experience was designed as an opportunity to talk business with representatives from government agencies and local companies, Quezada was more struck by the warmth and compassion of the people she encountered in informal spaces – a taxi driver who explained how Colombia was affected by the Venezuelan refugee crisis, and a woman who did her hair at a mall who “made me feel like her granddaughter.”

Being in Colombia reminded her “that people matter,” she says. “My views started to shift, where it was more about helping people and having an impact on society.”

She’s eager for that lesson to continue.

“Graduation is definitely going to be great, but it’s not something that I’m done with yet,” she says. “This is just going to refuel me and motivate me to keep going and work even harder.”

Starbucks offers 100 percent tuition coverage for its employees through an innovative partnership with Arizona State University.

‘My future is endless’: Meet 3 partners graduating through the Starbucks College Achievement Plan

Stories to inspire and nurture the human spirit

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This May, nearly 700 Starbucks partners will graduate with a degree from Arizona State University through the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, which covers 100 percent tuition for eligible partners attending ASU’s online program.

That makes nearly 4,500 total Starbucks partners who have earned first-time bachelor’s degrees since the program was announced in 2014. This is the largest graduating cohort in SCAP history. More than 14,000 partners across the U.S. are currently working towards a degree through SCAP, with more than 80 undergraduate degree options. And more than more than 20 percent of those are first-generation college students.

“This is an unprecedented time,” said Mary Dixon, SCAP director. “While this may look different than our graduates imagined the moment to be, it is still their moment. They’ve earned this. They’ve pushed boundaries and found a way here through many challenging moments. They’ve shown resilience, tenacity and an abundance of creativity to get to this milestone. As we all chart a way forward, I am hopeful because of the courage and determination they all have shown to get to this moment.”

Read on to meet three of this spring’s graduates.

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Celebrating graduates of Starbucks College Achievement Plan - Starbucks Stories

Celebrating graduates of Starbucks College Achievement Plan

This May, nearly 700 Starbucks partners will graduate with a degree from Arizona State University through the Starbucks College Achievement Plan.

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Amanda Dasher’s father is one of 10 siblings. None of them have a bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university. Her mother is one of five siblings. None of them have one either.

When Amanda graduates in May with a degree in organizational leadership from Arizona State University – as part of the latest cohort of graduates with the Starbucks College Achievement Plan (SCAP) – it won’t be just her celebrating, it’ll be her entire extended family.

“They’re all cheering me on,” Amanda says. “My degree means the world to me and will be one of the biggest accomplishments I have ever received.”

Amanda grew up in Santa Fe, N.M. Her father was in the Navy. While she was a strong student, she never felt any expectation to attend a four-year school after graduating high school. She didn’t receive much guidance either, in terms of taking standardized tests or filling out college applications and financial-aid forms.

She worked at a restaurant in New Mexico and took classes on-again off-again at a local community college, taking about 10 years to get an associate degree in business.

In 2014, Starbucks first introduced SCAP – which covers 100 percent tuition toward a first-time bachelor’s degree through ASU’s online program. Amanda jumped on the offer soon after. Of the approximately 14,000 U.S. Starbucks partners taking advantage of the SCAP benefit, more than 20 percent, like Amanda, are first-generation college attendees.

She ran into a big roadblock that first year, though. She had just been promoted to store manager in Albuquerque, N.M., and had difficulty juggling classes with running her store full time. She ended up failing three classes and faced academic probation.&nbsp;

“I never expected that to happen,” Amanda says. “I didn’t think I’d be finishing. This was not a proud moment for me, and I knew I had to turn it around.”

But then she found out that she was pregnant with a boy. In 2017, when Mason was born, Amanda had a new motivation: making sure that her son would be proud of his mother, and making sure that he’d grow up with two parents who had college degrees. Her husband, Brandon, also a Starbucks partner, also took advantage of the SCAP benefit and received his degree in 2017. He now works at the Starbucks Support Center (SSC) in Seattle at the Partner Contact Center while she manages a store in Snoqualmie, Wash.

Amanda, 32, hopes to use her degree and continue advancing within Starbucks, maybe applying for a store support role at the SSC, or trying to become a district manager.

She’s also been an evangelist for the SCAP benefit in her stores, talking it up to partners, especially the ones who might need financial help to go to school. She’ll celebrate with one of her shift supervisors, who’s also graduating this May, and three other partners she’s close with are also taking advantage of SCAP.

Amanda was planning to go back to Santa Fe to celebrate with her extended family, but COVID-19 lockdown measures have squelched those plans. She hopes to visit her family when travel restrictions loosen. Her relatives are ready to see her.

“Inside I knew she had it in her, she is a strong individual like that,” says Amanda’s aunt and godmother, Brenda Montoya, of Santa Fe. “The way Amanda was, she just wanted to do it on her own. She just kept at it. It takes a lot of self-discipline.” &nbsp;

Amanda’s honor cords – a recognition of her high GPA – came in the mail recently. Thinking back to the classes she failed when she first started at ASU, she can’t help but be amazed.

“Sometimes, I want to not feel proud of it because it took me so long to get here,” she says. “But it feels great knowing I got it done and I didn’t quit when it got rough.”

‘They are all cheering me on’: Amanda Dasher is first in her family to earn college degree - Starbucks Stories

‘They are all cheering me on’: Amanda Dasher is first in her family to earn college degree

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About once a week during the summers, when she was a kid growing up in Appleton, Wisc., Sarah Barr’s dad would take her and her two brothers out to the farm fields next to their house. They’d go looking for Native American arrowheads.

They’d stop at the gas station first and load up on snacks – hot dogs and chocolate milk. Then the three kids would follow dad around, spending the day walking the rows of corn, peering hard into the dirt.

“I loved to find the arrowheads in his footprints,” Sarah recalls. “The ones he had missed and stepped right over, I would pick up and make fun of him for not seeing them the first time.”

When Sarah graduates in May with a Bachelor of Science degree in Sustainability from Arizona State University – part of the latest cohort to take advantage of the Starbucks College Achievement Plan (SCAP) benefit – it won’t be just a story of resilience: how she gave college another shot and finished 10 years after her first try.

For Sarah, 28, a Starbucks shift supervisor in Wausau, Wisc., the degree is also a tribute to her late father Clark, who inspired her to love and care for the outdoors and its natural resources.

“Some of my favorite memories were being outside with him,” Sarah says. “I’ve always been the most at peace when I’m outside. I know that he would be absolutely thrilled that my dream is finally coming true.”

She hopes to eventually find a job where she feels like she’s “interacting with other people who have the same mindset and the same sustainability goals.” She wants to preserve natural lands and resources for future generations.

Sarah started at Starbucks about five years ago, a couple weeks after her father died of natural causes in his sleep, and discovered SCAP soon after. Starbucks offers 100 percent tuition coverage towards a first-time bachelor’s degree from ASU’s online program for any benefits-eligible partner.

Ten years ago, when Sarah went to college the first time, she studied criminal justice hoping to be a police officer. After a semester, she knew she couldn’t afford any more. When her dad picked her up from college, she remembers him saying during the drive home, “I don’t know why my kids don’t get to go to school.”

“He really felt like maybe he didn’t do enough because he didn’t have the money to send us,” Sarah recalls. Clark painted commercial buildings and houses. &nbsp;

Sarah is married to a veteran, Stan, a communications specialist who medically retired from the Marines after almost four years of service. Since, due to COVID-19, ASU’s traditional graduation ceremony is postponed, he’s promised to build her a stage at home so she can “walk” an at-home graduation ceremony. She’ll watch the virtual ceremony put on by ASU and send the link to her mother and grandparents, so they can celebrate with her, her husband and their three cats – Monster, Terror and Beast.

“I always kind of feel like he’s around somewhere,” Sarah says. “When he passed away, it was the middle of the summer, and there were monarch butterflies flying around everywhere. They come back (every year) when the snow goes away. Every time I see a monarch butterfly, I’m reminded of him. He’s maybe one of those butterflies, coming to check in on me and just giving me a peaceful moment where I’m relaxed and can feel like everything’s OK.”

Full circle: Partner’s SCAP degree in sustainability is part of her dad’s legacy - Starbucks Stories

Full circle: Partner’s SCAP degree in sustainability is part of her dad’s legacy

Sarah Barr’s dad inspired her to love and care for the outdoors. Five years after his death, she’s graduating with a degree in sustainability and wants to help preserve resources for future generations.

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When Samuel Choo was a senior in high school, his mother became sick from cancer. At school, he threw himself hard into every activity he could find – student council president, honor society president, drum major. At home, he struggled.

His father, an ex-Army drill instructor, “would get angry with me if I was showing signs of weakness or sadness; he didn’t want me to make my mom sad,” Samuel remembers.

Samuel, an only child, says he put “a veil of secrecy” over his anxiety: “a happy face to support my mom and not make my dad mad.”

When she died a few months after graduation, Samuel’s mental health deteriorated. Some days, he couldn’t get out of bed because of depression. Other times, when he was driving, he was overtaken with so much sadness and panic, he couldn’t fully grip the wheel and had to pull over and wait until his emotions subsided. He’d been admitted into Baylor University but withdrew without finishing his first semester.

Recently, Samuel, now 29, reflected on his past from his home in the Dallas area, where he works as a Starbucks shift supervisor. In a few days, he’s set to graduate from Arizona State University as a member of the Dean’s List. The journey to his liberal arts degree has taken about 10 years – one class a semester while working full time and focusing on his mental health.

“I can definitely say I’ve done my best, even though the path was bumpy for sure along the way,” Samuel says. “I took it in stride and made it to the finish line. I’m really proud of the experience I’ve gained through the process.”

Born in Seattle, Samuel moved with his parents to the Dallas area when he was 11 years old. His parents managed a restaurant together. His father, Roger, is a Korean immigrant who’d retired from the U.S. military. His mother, Debbie, who was white, was originally from West Virginia.

Samuel moved out of the house after coming back from Baylor and started working at Teavana, while taking classes at a community college. Starbucks acquired the tea company in 2012, and as Samuel transitioned to Starbucks, he found out about the Starbucks College Achievement Plan shortly after. The benefit covers 100 percent of the tuition toward a first-time bachelor’s degree through ASU’s online program. He took advantage of the company’s <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/starbucks-commitment-to-partners-mental-health/">mental-health benefits</a> too, including free counseling sessions.

When the right opportunity comes, Samuel wants to focus his career on helping entrepreneurs and small businesses develop their organizational culture and create stronger customer connections, subjects he’s not only studying at ASU but also on the job as a Starbucks partner. In fact, Samuel feels he has an advantage over some who go the traditional four-year route right out of high school. “I have my 10 years of workforce experience,” he says.

He’s also come full circle with his father, who embraced therapy to deal with his own struggles with post-traumatic stress. &nbsp;

“Seeing him so sensitive now and not so afraid of his own emotions, I’m really proud of him,” Samuel says. “And us being able to share our stories in a way that we weren’t able to when mom was sick and right after she passed … I never got to know mom as an adult. So now that he’s more open mentally and emotionally, I’m able to reconnect to my mom through him which has been really cool.”

Samuel hopes it’s safe enough by December to travel to ASU’s Fall commencement ceremony in Tempe, Ariz., when ASU will offer current spring grads a chance to walk the stage with the rest of the Class of 2020. For now, he’ll bake a cake and watch the virtual celebration with his boyfriend and his dogs.

“This journey has helped me learn who I am and who I want to become,” Samuel says. “I’m now able to act in my life and make decisions that I want to, instead of just reacting to what life is throwing at me.”

SCAP graduate’s college experience ‘helped me learn who I am’ - Starbucks Stories

SCAP graduate’s college experience ‘helped me learn who I am’

After living through the grief of his mother’s death and his own deep depression, Samuel Choo set his sights on earning a college degree while focusing on his mental health and working.

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