Back to Press RoomPizza Hut to begin annual $25,000 Life Unboxed College Scholarship opportunity for Uplift Education seniors
DALLAS (Nov. 2, 2016) —Pizza Hut will host nearly 80 juniors from Uplift Education for a career immersion day at 10:00 a.m. on November 2 at the Pizza Hut headquarters in Plano. Employees across the Pizza Hut organization will guide scholars throughout various parts of the business where they will hear first-hand about the wide array of careers within the company. The students will experience career panels, a tour of the Pizza Hut corporate offices, a pizza lunch and interactive, hands-on sessions with different Pizza Hut employees.
The Pizza Hut team will conclude the career immersion day by announcing a brand new scholarship opportunity for Uplift Education scholars called the Life Unboxed Scholarship. Beginning next school year, all seniors at Uplift Education will have the opportunity to apply for this $25,000 college assistance scholarship to help with tuition fees at the college or university of their choice.
“At Pizza Hut, unlocking the potential of our employees and our communities is rooted deep in our brand values, which we call Life Unboxed,” said Amy Messersmith, Chief People Officer, Pizza Hut. “We are thrilled to welcome the students of Uplift Infinity Preparatory to Pizza Hut and help to inspire their future with the stories of the people that make our business possible every day.”
Career experiences are a new component of Uplift’s flagship Road To College program which supports all Uplift Education scholars as they prepare for college, pursue the best fit universities and persist through to a college degree. Throughout their middle and high school years, scholars take several trips to visit colleges and universities throughout the state and nation. For the past eight years, 100% of Uplift graduates have been accepted to college.
“Over the years, we’ve been proud to support thousands of Uplift scholars as they’ve graduated and matriculated to college, a majority being first-generation college students,” said Yasmin Bhatia, CEO of Uplift Education “Equally as important is our big goal of 70% of alumni earning a college degree within six years. Career experiences like the one we are so grateful Pizza Hut is hosting are the next step in exposing our scholars to careers they may like to pursue after earning their degree. My hope is that more business will step up like Pizza Hut has to provide meaningful career experiences for Uplift scholars.”
FULL SCHEDULE
TIME: 10:00 a.m.- 1:30 p.m.
DATE: Wednesday, November 2
PLACE: 7100 Corporate Dr, Plano, TX 75024
- 10-10:20 a.m. Welcome and Overview
- 10-10:05 a.m. Kara Barry, Director, Communications and Engagement and Yasmin Bhatia, Uplift CEO, kickoff event, intro & overview
- 10:05-10:20 a.m. Amy Messersmith, Pizza Hut CPO – Overview
- 10:20-11:15 a.m. Career QA Panel
- 11:15-11:25 a.m. Break
- 11:25 a.m. -12:15 p.m. CORE tour
- 12:15-12:45 p.m. Lunch
- 12:45-1:25 p.m. LTO Creation Ideation
- 1:25-1:30 p.m. Life Unboxed Scholarship announcement, summary, and closing
About Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM), delivers more pizza, pasta and wings than any other restaurant in the world. The company began 58 years ago in Wichita, Kansas, when two brothers borrowed $600 from their mom to start a pizzeria.
What started out small has become the biggest pizza company in the world and today operates more than 15,600 restaurants in more than 97 countries serving innovative pizzas, traditional favorites like the signature Pan Pizza, and much more. Pizza Hut also is the proprietor of the BOOK IT!® Program, which is a long-standing children’s literacy program used in more than 630,000 classrooms nationwide. For more information, visit www.pizzahut.com. Follow Pizza Hut on Facebook (www.facebook.com/PizzaHut), Twitter (www.twitter.com/pizzahut) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/pizzahut).
About Uplift Education
Uplift Education is a is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operating a network of 36 tuition-free, college preparatory, public charter schools in Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving, Grand Prairie and DeSoto on 17 campuses. Uplift Education schools provide a rigorous, multidisciplinary curriculum, with an emphasis on college preparation. Uplift Education educates nearly 16,000 students, with the majority being low-income and minority students who will be the first in their family to attend college. Uplift schools are public schools — students are selected by a blind lottery with no information collected on their past academic performance. For more information, visit uplifteducation.org or facebook.com/uplifteducation.
Media Contacts:
Sara Ortega
Director of Communications
sortega@uplifteducation.org
469-621-8498
###