Hormel Foods announced last week that it will begin offering two years of free college tuition to all the children of their American employees beginning next year.
Not based on achievement in test scores or GPA, the new program is a way to create equality in education admissions—and the company hopes many who take advantage of the offer will be first-generation college students in their families.
Called “Inspired Pathways,” the program will begin in the fall of 2021. A spokesperson for Hormel Foods told GNN the company has 16,000 domestic employees and the program is open to any dependent child of those workers. The company has more than 30 plant and office locations in the U.S., primarily in the Midwest, and the kids can attend any community college of their choice as long as they graduate from high school and meet the school’s entry requirements.
“When you think about how a college education can change lives and start a ripple effect that will be felt for generations, that’s the change-maker Hormel Foods wants to be,” said Jim Snee, the company president and CEO, in a statement.
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“Our goal is that it costs us a lot; we want as many people to go as possible,” said Jim Sheehan, an executive vice president and CFO, in a statement.
The company isn’t just investing money into the program. Sheehan said they’re making a large effort to make sure people know about it, encouraging supervisors to reach out to their employees about it and help guide them through the process if they’re interested.
The Hormel Foundation has offered a similar program the past couple years that allowed students from Austin, Minnesota, where the company is headquartered, to attend Riverland Community College free of charge.
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This is an expanded version of that highly successful Austin Assurance Scholarship, to benefit the high school graduates of Hormel employees across the country, rather than just students who live locally.
Austin Public Schools Superintendent David Kranz said the foundation’s program has been instrumental in getting students into college who might not have gone otherwise.
“We know that for a fact,” he said.
Additionally, the company offers tuition reimbursement for current team members who go back to school while working at Hormel Foods.
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