A powerful portion of ‘the American dream’ was served by a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to help out one of its own.
Thalles DeSouza’s story may have started in a treacherous neighborhood near Rio de Janeiro, but his next chapter will be written at one of America’s most prestigious universities.
DeSouza, who’s now 23, grew up in Brazil, living on the streets after he lost both his parents. Death, poverty, and despair were commonplace. But, as an adolescent, DeSouza was sleeping one night when gunfire erupted. His American dream began right then.
“I was just another statistic unlikely to make it,” DeSouza wrote on an Instagram video that captured the moment he got the good news (translated to English).
“But God had the final word. In 2016, after nearly being killed in a shootout inside my own home, my mother decided to give up everything and come to the United States.”
DeSouza and his family made their way to Massachusetts and he started working at a local Wendy’s while in high school. He became a model employee, getting along well with fellow staff members and making an impression on the owners. He was promoted to shift manager as a high school senior.
And then, his bosses at Wendy’s, Usama El-Sehrawey and the late Ernest Smily, gave him an even better offer—vowing to pay his tuition at community college.
“College to me was something really far from my reach,” DeSouza said in the video interview below. “It changed my whole perspective and it changed the way I saw life.
“I understood that someone was betting on me, so it was now my time to do my part. And that’s what I did.” (Watch the video below, or read more at the bottom…)
The generosity that paved the way for DeSouza’s college journey is a key ingredient at Wendy’s since the company was founded by Dave Thomas.
Thomas was adopted as a child and has made adoption a cornerstone of his philanthropy.
“That’s definitely Wendy’s culture,” Terry Smily, Ernest’s son, said about the generous scholarship. “We really live by Dave Thomas’s values. Dave always said, ‘Give something back.’”
The immigrant excelled at Cape Cod Community College and kept pushing himself toward bigger things. After three years there, he applied to more prestigious schools. And this May, he got accepted into Yale, with a full-ride scholarship that will cover his entire tuition.
His path and his life have changed dramatically in four years—and he couldn’t wait to thank the families who gave him a chance.
“At the time, I had no idea how much that opportunity would change my life,” Thalles recalled on Facebook, tagging his bosses and Wendy’s in the 4-year-anniversary post.
“Thank you … for believing in me. Your generosity opened a door that changed my life, and I will always be grateful.
“Sometimes all it takes is one person who believes in you. I’m living proof of that.”
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He starts this fall at Yale with a major in political science and a minor in human rights, hoping to become a lawyer. The American dream that once seemed a whole world away, is now within reach.
“Where you come from does not determine where you can go,” he says. “Sometimes, the most impossible journeys take us to places we never imagined reaching.”
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