In this episode of DisruptED, host Ron Stefanski joins Lisa Schumacher, Director of Education Strategies at McDonald’s, and Ron Williams, McDonald’s Operations Director. Schumacher discusses the education support programs at McDonald’s and Williams offers a first-hand account of how his employment and education have launched his career.

Lisa Schumacher started at McDonald’s in the summer of 2013. She refers to her initial role as ambiguous. The company recognized success with its English as a second language. Schumacher’s job was to develop more programs like it. 20% of McDonald’s 850,000 US employees did not have a high school education when Schumacher started. Schumacher was critical in developing a more robust education benefits program.

Its framework revolved around these core questions, “What are the needs of this employee population? How do we help them work along that education spectrum? How do we meet them at their point of need? And how do we help them get to where they want to be?” said Schumacher.

“In addition to launching the high school program, we launched college tuition assistance and academic and career advising services. All of that happened under the Archways to Opportunity.”

Ronald Williams, Operations Director, is a McDonald’s Archways to Opportunity success story. His father was killed when he was just seven years old.

“As a seven-year-old, I said, ‘I’m going to do something different. And for me, it was education… I knew education was going to be the way out. I chose education, and it’s benefited me so much,” said Williams.

He was hired at McDonald’s during his second year at California State University, Stanislaus. Since then, he completed his undergrad, began working for the corporate office, and returned to school for his master’s degree.

• McDonald’s Archways to Opportunity supports employees with education needs.
• Education as a benefit helps corporations and individuals.
• Ronald Williams shares first-hand success with the education program.