Former Palatine H.S. Standout Receives $2,500 Culver's VIP Scholarship
Admittedly, Sabine Jacobsen always needs to be on the move. The 2014 Palatine High School graduate was a three-sport athlete and four-year marching band trombone player. During that time, she also somehow managed to maintain a near-4.0 grade average.
Jacobsen, who just completed her freshman year at Concordia College near Milwaukee, where she attend on a tennis scholarship, has been working at Culver's restaurant in Palatine for the past three years.
"I grew up coming to this Culver's," she gleams. "I always admired how they treated my family but more than that, how they treat their employees and all of their guests. I mean, this really is a place where the employees know the names of their guests."
That corporate sense of caring has now been extended to Jacobsen from a companywide standpoint-to the tune of a $2,500 Culver's VIP Foundation Scholarship. It's one of the larger amounts the program has ever offered and will help Sabine continue her path to becoming a high school or even university science teacher.
"I wasn't aware that the VIP Foundation offered an amount of that size," laughed Culver's of Palatine owner Zach Steffens, who added that Jacobsen even speaks fluent German to the store's German-speaking guests. "There's no one who is more deserving than Sabine. She is an absolutely amazing kid and comes from a wonderful family. She gives 110 percent in everything she does and is a terrific brand ambassador for Culver's of Palatine."
Each year, Culver's VIP Foundation awards team members with scholarships to further their education. All applicants are required to have worked at Culver's for one year, have worked at least 500 hours over the past year and have a cumulative grade point average of 2.5 or above. This year, the Foundation is awarding a total of $432,500 to 234 team members nationwide. A group of suppliers and friends of Culver's make up the 51 judges who review the applications.
The foundation's first scholarship was $500 in 1993, and it has since awarded over $2 million to more than 2,000 team members. For additional information about Culver's VIP Scholarship Program, visit www.culversvipfoundation.com.
While most college students home for the summer supplement work with a little free time, Sabine will be supplementing her work at Culver's with a second job-teaching gymnastics to youngsters at the Buehler YMCA in Palatine.
While her talents and excellence in science could take her as far as NASA or inside some of the most important laboratories in the world, Sabine is laser focused on teaching when she finishes college.
"I love people too much to be sitting in a lob somewhere," she grins. "It's my goal to get kids interested in school, especially through teaching them how awesome science can be. My mission is really to change people's lives, be it in the classroom or even working here at Culver's. If we can provide a positive experience and the guest leave the restaurant feeling a little happier than we they arrived, then we've done our job."