Students receive $5,000 scholarships from Taco Bell Foundation
Submitted by the Taco Bell Foundation
The Taco Bell Foundation and franchisees recently announced the 2017 winners of the foundation's Live Más Scholarship.
Neil Borkan, owner of NJB Operations, announced that Jesse Zumstein and Heather De Reu from the Antioch and Lake Zurich Taco Bell Restaurants, respectively, are among this year's winners.
These students join this year's class of 170 Live Más Scholarship recipients, including 55 Taco Bell employees, who will each receive scholarships ranging from $5,000-$25,000, for a total of $1.5 million in funding.
The Live Más Scholarship program is designed to help innovators, creators and dreamers ages 16-24 pursue unique education and career passions that may not necessarily fit into the conventional "academic" or "athletic" scholarship categories.
Zumstein plans to use his scholarship to pursue his passion of graphic design at Lake County Community College. De Reu is pursuing forensic science at the University of Wisconsin at Platterville.
"We are thrilled to have Jesse and Heather represent all of us at NJB and Taco Bell," owner Neil Borkan said. "They are great examples of the youth of today. It is very cool to see their excitement as they are able to take another step in the direction of their dreams.
"And we are very proud to have a small part in that. It's gratifying to see some of the money raised in the communities where we do business come back to serve people that live and work in those towns."
The Taco Bell Foundation recently announced a plan to award $10 million in Live Más Scholarships by 2022. Since the scholarship first opened in 2015, the Taco Bell Foundation has awarded $2.8 million to its Live Más scholars and plans to award $1-2 million each year through 2022 to meet the $10 million goal.
"We've seen the incredible impact that the Live Más Scholarship has already had in its first two years, and we are thrilled to continue jump-starting careers, fueling passions and extending opportunities to even more young people," said Brian Niccol, chief executive officer at Taco Bell Corp. and chairman of the Taco Bell Foundation.
For more information, visit www.livemasscholarship.com.
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