Katie's Chick-fil-A Story

The Chick-fil-A restaurant in Pace, Florida was just about to open when I took my daughter to interview for a position. She was 16 years old and a rising senior in high school. While we knew that working there would be a good part-time job, little did we know that it would be such a supportive aid to her education.

Katie worked at the Pace store part-time through her senior year and then her first two years of college. During that time, they awarded her a $1,000 scholarship. Then she transferred to Florida State University in Tallahassee to finish her degree in dietetics. There she was able to get a job at another Chick-fil-A restaurant because she had experience within the company. And whenever she went home, they gave her hours, too.

But one of the most important things Katie gained from working part-time at Chick-fil-A that she didn’t realize at first, was food service experience. Obtaining a dietetic internship, an essential part of becoming a registered dietician with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, is highly competitive and food service experience is valuable to have on your record.

Katie applied to one graduate school and one internship and was accepted to both. During the internship, she noticed that working with people in a healthcare setting was easier because she had been working with the general public for so long.

Katie continued to work for Chick-fil-A during and after her internship was completed. The management at Chick-fil-A supported her efforts of looking for a position and applauded her when she got it. By the time she left Chick-fil-A, seven years after she started, Katie felt like they were her family and that they were firmly behind her.

It has been truly inspirational to see Katie become a confident, professional young woman and for her to have worked with a company that is about much more than money and uses their business to help others. Thank you, Chick-fil-A, from the bottom of my heart.