Howard University is partnering with Yum! Brands Inc., the Louisville-based owner of brands like KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, for a new fellowship program designed to launch underserved students into careers in restaurant franchising.
Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), which owns more than 52,000 restaurants across the globe, is also partnering with the University of Louisville, where it houses its Yum! Center for Global Franchise Excellence. The goal of its new Yum! Franchise Accelerator, announced Thursday, is to boost women and people of color into the industry. It launched this semester, said Howard spokeswoman Misha Cornelius.
Howard recently revealed the accelerator program to its MBA students, who were invited to apply for the fellowship, and after interviews, six were selected, Cornelius said. They're eligible for scholarships, education through the Yum! Center for Global Franchise Excellence’s franchising curriculum, mentorship from franchisees, in-restaurant training, and a sponsored trip to Yum! Brands’ Louisville Restaurant Support Center.
"Howard students have always been passionate about entrepreneurship because of the potential it has to impact not just their own lives, but the lives of people in their communities,” Yuvay Meyers Ferguson, Howard’s assistant dean of impact and engagement and marketing professor, said in a statement. “The Franchise Accelerator is an incredible opportunity for Howard students to gain training in and access to a sector that has served as a wealth-building engine for so many communities.”
The five-month fellowship will conclude with a pitch competition. Out of the four University of Louisville students and six Howard students, the two winners of the pitch competition will be recruited as franchisees for Yum! Brands and will receive seed money and additional training and mentorship.
“This program is consistent with our goal of becoming the world’s multibrand franchisor of choice which strives to create a global franchise system as diverse as the communities we serve,” Wanda Williams, Yum! Global Franchising’s head, said in a statement.
