JAN-PRO Awards 70 Your Family First College Scholarships
JAN-PRO encourages its franchise owners to achieve their dreams. One of the personal goals for many families is to advance their education. To help in this important priority, JAN-PRO launched a scholarship program to support its franchise owners and their families. This year the company awarded 70 scholarships totaling approximately $150,000 in its Your Family First Scholarship Program.
Giving back to its Owners and their communities is a core part of the JAN-PRO company culture. Education creates opportunities to advance one’s career and achieve personal goals. That combined with hard work and dedication have helped many of the JAN-PRO owners to grow their businesses. The spirit of helping and mentoring others has been a basic belief at JAN-PRO for the past 23 years.
From that core value, JAN-PRO created the Your Family First Scholarship Program. In 2014, the inaugural year of the program, master franchise owners across the United States awarded 70 scholarships in special events from Charleston to San Diego.
Many of our franchisees have told us they joined JAN-PRO in order to build a business and leave a legacy for their families. We know there is no greater legacy than a good education. Giving back in this way recognizes our hard working franchise owners and helps their families offset the rising costs of a college education.
From first-generation college students to aspiring health-care and engineering professionals, these young adults represent the second-generation in their family to advance their potential to achieve self-sufficiency. Master franchise owners participated in the scholarship grants to show how much they value their franchise owners.
Carolyn Hawthorne, president of JAN-PRO of Richmond/Charlottesville, and a former high school teacher for 30-plus years, says the Your Family First scholarship gives us an opportunity to assist our hardworking franchisees and their families meet their personal goals that advanced education can give them. The price of college has risen more than four times faster than inflation since 1978, easily outpacing doctors’ bills.
Each JAN-PRO office solicited applications from unit-franchise owners and their families and considered applicants based on family income, academic achievement, community leadership, work experience and financial needs. From Illinois to Florida and Virginia to California, deserving applicants from offices across the country received assistance to further their academic ambitions.
Here is what several of the scholarship winners had to say. It gave me much joy knowing that I could continue my studies next semester and that the sacrifices and hard work of my mom have been recognized and valued, says Valentina Riveros Gomez, a freshman at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, who was awarded $2,500 and hopes to ultimately pursue a master’s degree in psychology. Clearly JAN-PRO recognizes without education there is no future, without investment there is no gain, and without good references there is no good business.
This award brings financial relief and incredible thankfulness to JAN-PRO and their support of my education, explains Mooji Boldbaatar, a freshman at the University of Denver studying chemistry, who received a $2,500 award. I will graduate in three years, then plan on getting my master’s degree, and possibly a Ph.D.
I chose to invest in a JAN-PRO franchise because I am a full-time student with a young son. I needed a job with a schedule I could control, adds Daniela Stanoycheva, a winner and franchise-owner in Virginia who recently completed her associate’s degree at J. Sargent Reynolds Community College and was awarded $1,000. The scholarship was unexpected, but it shows how the company really cares about its employers and supports them.
Many of the award winners will be the first generation of their family to attend college. Parents of the winners, who are unit franchise owners from coast to coast, say JAN-PRO’s investment in their families reinforces their decision to buy a franchise.
The scholarship program shows us that JAN-PRO is committed to our community, continues Manoj Kumar, unit-franchise owner in Sacramento, California, and father of an award winner. The major advantage of being a JAN-PRO franchisee is that we can work flexible working hours and meet with other family commitments and functions, which we couldn’t do otherwise.
Rich Kissane, CEO of Premium Franchise Brands, the parent company of JAN-PRO, believes the decision to pay tens of thousands of dollars for higher education is the first big decision most young people and their families. We know that decision will shape the rest of their lives, Kissane adds. JAN-PRO wants to do everything we can to help them get it right.