{"id":255021,"date":"2026-04-18T01:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T01:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/255021\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T01:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T01:00:20","slug":"dallas-fast-food-worker-gets-surprise-support-after-putting-college-dreams-on-hold-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/255021\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas fast\u2011food worker gets surprise support after putting college dreams on hold"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>EDITOR&#8217;S NOTE: Life-changing moments happen all the time, but there&#8217;s not always a camera around to record them. This morning, there was one \u2013 when CBS News Texas captured a surprise gift for a hardworking fast-food employee who feared she might have to give up on her dreams.<\/p>\n<p>=====<\/p>\n<p>Taniyah Lucky had just started her day at the KFC on Samuel Boulevard in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/tag\/dallas\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dallas<\/a>, where she&#8217;s worked off and on since she was a teenager.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I love the company, I love the people, I love the environment,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Lucky has long aspired to become a lawyer, but the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/tag\/education\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">cost of college<\/a> forced her to step away from school last fall and work full-time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It didn&#8217;t make me feel good, but I knew that I couldn&#8217;t give up,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>She and other employees believed they had been called in for a routine team meeting. Instead, it was a celebration.<\/p>\n<p>KFC Foundation awards $5,000 scholarship<\/p>\n<p>The KFC Foundation surprised Lucky with a $5,000 scholarship \u2013 one of 300 awarded nationwide this year as part of a $2 million program supporting employees pursuing education.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I feel good, surprised, and for the first time speechless,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She works very hard, and she&#8217;s very dedicated,&#8221; said area coach Kok Ng.<\/p>\n<p>The foundation has awarded $25 million in scholarships since 2012, according to KFC CEO Scott Mezvinsky, who said the program reflects the values of the company&#8217;s founder.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The colonel believed in leaving no one behind, and so I&#8217;m proud that 74 years later we continue to provide opportunities for our folks to get an education and make sure we give opportunities to everybody,&#8221; Mezvinsky said.<\/p>\n<p>A second chance at college<\/p>\n<p>Lucky earned the scholarship after writing an essay about leaving college despite doing well academically.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every day I regret leaving college because it wasn&#8217;t hard, I was passing every class,&#8221; she wrote.<\/p>\n<p>She plans to continue working and re-enroll at Dallas College in the fall.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The life struggles and the struggles that I&#8217;ve seen other people go through, my family goes through, my parents go through, so that was a push for me to keep going and never give up,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDITOR&#8217;S NOTE: Life-changing moments happen all the time, but there&#8217;s not always a camera around to record them.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,163,430,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-255021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-headlines","10":"tag-dallas-news","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-north-texas","13":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}