UPS Earn & Learn Program Opens Doors For Hispanic Students.

The UPS Earn and Learn program – an innovative combination of part-time work opportunities, tuition assistance and forgivable loans – is helping Hispanic students overcome the traditional financial barriers they often face in earning a college degree.

Meeting the rising cost of tuition can be particularly stressful for parents of Hispanic students who, according to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, often feel that college is not an option due to limited financial resources. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that Hispanics have the highest dropout rates (29.5%) of any major racial or ethnic group (ages 16 to 24); only 10.3 percent of all Hispanic adults (ages 25 and up) have a bachelor’s degree, compared with 24.6 percent of
non-Hispanic whites.

Junior Cueva, a 20-year-old Peruvian-American and a part-time supervisor at UPS’s facility in Parsippany, N.J., is challenging those statistics. Despite hefty tuition bills, Cueva is committed to earning his degree in computer science and has turned to UPS for help in footing his educational expenses. Through the company’s Earn and Learn program, Cueva and other students working part time receive up to $3,000 in tuition assistance and $2,000 in forgivable loans per
calendar year.

“Working at UPS has not only enabled me, but also my family, to receive several benefits,” says Cueva, who is now in his second year of college at Essex Community College. “With Earn and Learn, I am able to work and go to school at the same time. Plus, there are plenty of opportunities to advance within the company – I started as a part-time package handler and now I’m a part-time supervisor overseeing several employees.”

Part-time employees are eligible for Earn and Learn the day they are hired and the program is offered in addition to starting pay of $8.50-$9.50 per hour and benefits such as full health coverage for the employee and their family, paid vacation and a 401(k) plan.

According to Hispanic Scholarship Fund President and CEO Sara Martinez Tucker, initiatives such as the UPS Earn and Learn program are critical to increasing the number of Hispanics earning college degrees.

“Creative programs like UPS’s Earn and Learn encourage and enable Hispanic students to pursue a college education by providing them financial assistance and flexible work hours that complement their class schedule,” said Tucker. “This type of innovative approach by corporations is key to increasing the number of Hispanics earning college degrees.”