An afternoon orchestra performance didn’t seem out of the ordinary for Southeastern University student Aaron Taher. On Tuesday, Feb. 25, he joined his classmates in the School of Music building for what he thought was just a small concert for a visiting group of VIPs. Little did he know, in the audience was Chick-fil-A’s CEO, Andrew T. Cathy, and a $25,000 check with Taher’s name on it.
“It’s just a normal Tuesday, I thought,” Taher said. “All of a sudden, I see my Chick-fil-A teammates, and my family comes in.” Cathy pretended to hop in as a guest conductor before stopping the show to award him with the $25,000 Chick-fil-A Remarkable Futures Scholarship.
As an employee of a restaurant back home in Grand Rapids, MI, Taher applied for the scholarship last fall but didn’t expect to win. “I thought I’d shoot my shot, because, you know, you miss all the shots you don’t take,” he said. “I knew that if I didn’t win, then I knew someone else needed it more.”
This year, only 13 team members from across the country will receive an award from the Remarkable Futures program, which has given more than $200 million in scholarships since it began in 1973. Employees must be recommended by an operator or manager based on their professional achievement + leadership, which Cathy says Taher has in spades.
“He’s worked really, really hard at his academics, and just demonstrated a lot of leadership,” Cathy said of why Taher was selected. “We saw it in the restaurant, and we see it in the way he conducts himself in the classroom as well.”
Taher is a junior commercial music major, and he plans to use the skills he learned at Chick-fil-A while creating music after graduation.
