A Chick-Fil-A employee in North Carolina was busy working the drive-thru last Thursday when company leaders surprised her with a giant $25,000 check to pay for her university tuition.
Jacqueline Murphy, who works as a seasonal manager at the Chick-Fil-A store on East Woodlawn Road, was presented with the check as part of the company's scholarship program called "Remarkable Futures."
According to the Daily Mail, a drive-thru customer handed her a giant pot of Chick-Fil-A dipping sauce, which contained a tablet with a message from the company's CEO Dan T. Cathy.
The message explained that she was one of 13 employees who had been chosen to receive the $25,000 grant as part of the scholarship program aimed at helping employees get a higher education. Murphy's family and friends were told to wait around the corner to surprise her after the presentation of the check.
Murphy, who attends Wingate University's School of Pharmacy, started working at the fast food chain to overcome her shyness. She has reportedly been seen at the restaurant even on her days off to shadow other staff in order to learn how to become more engaged with customers.
"You can say I'm blessed. I'm blessed by God, my family. From the prayers and support from my people. It's just insane. I love it," Murphy told WLTX19.
Apart from the $25,000 scholarship grant, the fast food chain is also giving $2,500 each to 5,700 employees.
Chick-fil-A is known for its Christian values but despite closing on Sundays, it is one of the most lucrative fast food chains and was ranked as the number one fast food chain in the nation last year by Foursquare and Business Insider.
Some believe that the restaurant's success is because of the customers' appreciation for its Christian values.
"Those strong values resonate with a lot of people — and Chick-fil-A has a strong product, too, which doesn't hurt," Victor Fernandez, the executive director for insights at TDn2K's Black Box Intelligence unit, which tabulates restaurant sales and performance, according to The Christian Post.
Chick-fil-A was recently accused in a divisive article published in The New Yorker of "creepy pervasive infiltration of New York City."
The author of the article, Dan Piepenbring, complained about the company's "pervasive Christian traditionalism" and its Atlanta headquarters being "adorned with Bible verses and a statue of Jesus washing a disciple's feet."
