Burger Chains Assist Students

McDonald’s Restaurants of Hawaii has been rewarding its student employees with scholarships for nearly 20 years, and this time three recent West Oahu graduates are among the state’s nine winners.

Marshall Fletcher, Kylie Gumban and Dexter Manglicmot — all employees of the Ewa Beach restaurant — received their scholarships at an awards luncheon in May.

“We are proud of our hard-working employee scholars as they seek to pursue higher education,” stated Linda Rosario, a McDonald’s Restaurants of Hawaii owner and operator. “Since 1995, Mc-Donald’s has been committed to awarding scholarships to our student employees based on academic achievement, community involvement and on-the-job performance.”

Fletcher and Manglicmot recently graduated from Campbell High School and will attend Portland State University and Washington’s Whit-worth University, respectively. Gumban, meanwhile, was home-schooled and plans to study at Corban University in Salem, Ore.

That’s not the only fast food chain to help out local students. Burger King McLamore Foundation has awarded $1,000 scholarships to 33 Hawaii high school seniors, employees or employee-related students for the 2014-2015 school year. Among them are 11 students or residents of West Oahu.

West Oahu recipients are Campbell High’s Raven Parado, Aiea High’s Gina Chanthavong, Pearl City High’s Roselyn Chan and Jenny Rose Anacan, Waipahu High’s Maria Andrea Jurado, Lanakila Baptist Academy’s Amelia Pacheco, Lani Felicitas of Aiea, Kourtney Christen Kawano and Lorelei Blossom Zabanal of Kapolei, Cindy Vuong of Pearl City and Chantyle Ramones of Ewa Beach.

Awards are based on students’ grade-point average and are funded by year-round contributions accepted by the chain’s front-counter cashiers, as well as the foundation itself, which is named for Burger King co-founder James W. McLamore.

Its mission is to build brighter futures and to “provide hardship assistance to members of the Burger King family.”