Burger King Scholars Program

Through the BK℠ Scholars program, we’ve awarded nearly $60 million to over 51,000 deserving students across North America. Our goal is to grant one scholarship for every BK® restaurant — that’s more than $7 million each year!

Education is a key part of success, and we focus on bringing that to students in North America through our BK Scholars Program. The BK Scholars Program is the Foundation’s flagship program, established to honor the legacy of the Burger King brand’s co-founder James W. McLamore, whose commitment to philanthropy and education made him a pillar of community service throughout his lifetime. Through the program, we award scholarships to deserving high school seniors and Burger King® employees and their families to help advance their education. Because of Jim, his legacy, and the support of franchisees, the scholars program has now awarded a total of $60 million in scholarships to more than 51,000 deserving students throughout North America since 2000.  

Scholarships range from $1,000 to $60,000 and are intended to offset the cost of attending college or post-secondary vocational/technical school. Recipients are selected through an application process that takes into consideration their grade point average (GPA), work experience, extracurricular activities, financial need and community service. In 2024 alone, the Foundation awarded over $4.5 million in scholarships to nearly 4,200 students. Scholarship status updates were shared on Monday, April 20, 2024.

The application period for the 2024-2025 will open from October 15, 2024 to December 15, 2024. Scholarship recipients will be notified April 2025.

Scholarship Eligibility

Applicants must:

• Be living in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam or Canada
• Be graduating high school seniors (U.S., Puerto Rico or Guam), graduating from grade 12 (Canada) or graduating from home school education in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam or Canada
• Have a cumulative high school grade point average of 2.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale, or the equivalent
• Plan to enroll full-time, without interruption, for the entire academic year at an accredited two- or four-year college, university or vocational-technical school or CEGEP or equivalent in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam or Canada