New partnership offers tuition assistance to local college students

McDonald’s announced a partnership with Ivy Tech on Thursday offering tuition assistance to workers pursuing a degree.

The Archways to Opportunity Program awards McDonald’s crew employees with up to $2500 in tuition assistance every year they are in school.

In order to be eligible to receive the award, workers must be employed for 90 days or longer and work at least 15 hours a week.

This nation-wide program extends to 18 Ivy Tech locations and 300 McDonald’s, including the restaurant off of Lincolnway East in South Bend, and encourages students to achieve a positive balance between work and school.

Delza Penatorres, a worker at that McDonald’s and a recipient of tuition assistance said, “I’m really lucky. I have a lot of friends who are already thousands of dollars in debt, and I kind of want to tell them to come over and work at McDonald’s and get that help, too. It would be a lot less stressful to them, I think.”

Managers are also eligible and can receive up to $3000 of assistance per year.

Restaurant owner Lisa Reiser said that the program can make a “world of difference” for employees, especially when they combine the award with other grants and assistance they have received.

In 2019, McDonald’s invested $1.2 million in tuition assistance across the state of Indiana.