Newark, NJ—Mayor Ras J. Baraka and owners of several Newark McDonald’s restaurants announced the launch the “Archways to Opportunity” program Thursday that gives tuition assistance to employees.

The Newark eateries will hire up to 200 hundred residents for summer jobs and through those jobs employees become eligible for help earning their high school diplomas, college tuition assistance, education advising services and English-language classes.

“Today is a great day because we’re talking about expanding their education program,” said Baraka, who served residents out of the drive-through window at the McDonald’s on West Market Street after speaking Thursday afternoon.

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Baraka commended the program which allows McDonald’s employees to study for other careers while continuing to work for the restaurant.

“Not many corporations are willing to provide capital to send their employees somewhere else,” said Baraka. “It’s kind of counterintuitive. It’s a very progressive thing to do. We’re just excited that they are going to do this in the city of Newark.”

The McDonald’s Corporation will invest $150 million over a five-year period towards the Archways to Opportunity education program. Since launching in the U.S. in 2015, this program has increased access to education for more than 24,000 people and has given more than $21 million in high school and college tuition assistance.

Linda Dunham, owner of the Newark Penn McDonald’s spoke about the expansion of the program, which now offers more money per person and will require a shorter wait time for employees to be eligible to receive tuition assistance.

With the recent expansion of the Archways program, a student starting out at their first summer job and working a minimum of 15 hours per week will now be eligible for $2,500 of tuition assistance per year after only 90 days of employment.





“We thought that was good, but we wanted to do more,” Dunham said of the growth and expansion of the Archways program. “Now instead of nine months it’s a 90-day wait period.”

Dunham told the story of an employee named Belle who has worked her way through the ranks at McDonald’s and who decided to attend New Jersey Institute of Technology to study biochemical engineering. Dunham encouraged anyone who might be interested in working at McDonald’s to apply and to take advantage of the Archways education program.

“Our commitment to education reinforces our ongoing support of the people who play a crucial role in our journey to build a better McDonald’s,” Steve Easterbrook, McDonald’s President and CEO said in a statement. “By offering restaurant employees more opportunities to further their education and pursue their career aspirations, we are helping them find their full potential, whether that’s at McDonald’s or elsewhere.”