Cambridge woman gifted plane ticket for graduation ceremony

CAMBRIDGE — McDonald’s employee and Cambridge resident Mary Cooper-White found herself shedding tears of joy when The Meoli Companies owner and operator Michael Meoli presented her with round-trip airfare so she could walk with her graduating class at Colorado Technical University this July.

Meoli — who owns 25 McDonald’s restaurants across the Delmarva Peninsula — surprised Cooper-White with the airline tickets a few weeks after the company hosted a gathering of her McDonald’s family to celebrate a ten-year educational journey that started when she was a junior in high school.

For Cooper-White and The Meoli Companies, Cooper-White’s story exemplifies the educational support and the doors that can be opened through the McDonald’s Archways to Opportunity program.

“Going to college never crossed my mind, I had started my career with McDonald’s and just wanted to keep moving up,” Cooper-White said. “However, I saw how education could open up so many more opportunities — opportunities with McDonald’s and even within The Meoli Companies. I figured, why not see what else I could achieve with a real education? Plus, McDonald’s not only encouraged me, they paid for it all.”

Cooper-White is one of more than 65,000 restaurant employees who have received college tuition assistance through McDonald’s Archways to Opportunity.

As a junior in high school Cooper-White took her first job, working the register at the Cambridge McDonald’s, which is part of The Meoli Companies. Not long after she started, the manager saw her potential and mentored her in setting additional goals. For Cooper-White, that meant taking a training class and moving into a role of transitional leader, where she paid it forward by helping to put other employees in positions to go further in their jobs. By 2018 Cooper-White had worked her way up to being a certified manager.

In 2020, COVID-19 had an affect on Cooper-White that many people experienced: She began thinking more decidedly about what she wanted for her future. So, at age 21, what had once been unthinkable for Cooper-White — getting a college education — became her new aspiration.

“I wanted to run my own department and maybe even have my own store one day,” she said. “The (general manager) at the McDonald’s restaurant where I work also started out at age 16. Now she’s a supervisor with Meoli Companies. I thought, I can do this too, especially with my background in business.”

Cooper-White took advantage of McDonald’s Archways to Opportunity program, which paid for all her online classes at Colorado Technical University. While working full-time at the Cambridge McDonald’s, Cooper-White was able to obtain her associate degree in business administration in two years.

“The process of getting financial aid was really easy,” she said. “Plus, my McDonald’s community encouraged me through it all because many of them had also gone through it. If I needed help, they were there. Not many people take McDonald’s up on their free education offer, but I am so glad I did, and I’m looking to do it again and go back for my bachelor’s degree. Never count yourself out.”

Cooper-White encourages everyone to understand that working at McDonald’s is so much more than a job. In addition to college tuition support — which will be available when Cooper-White pursues her bachelor’s degree — McDonald’s Archways to Opportunity has had over 8,300 graduates go through its English Under the Arches program, has supported more than 1,700 people in graduating from the career online high school programming and has awarded over $185 million in high school and college assistance.

“It is an honor for The Meoli Companies to be such an influential resource for ambitious employees like Mary,” Meoli said. “An honor and a privilege. Without Mary and all our employees, there would be no Meoli Family McDonald’s. By supporting the education and career growth of our employees, we engage in an incredible cycle of serving our community that goes far beyond the food we serve at our restaurants. By enabling education and supporting fulfilling career paths, we become part of the fabric of the neighborhoods in which we do business. We become part of people’s lives and contribute to a strong economy. This, in turn, allows us to give back even more to people like Mary, her family and others who work and live in our community.”