ASU President Michael Crow, CEO Laxman Narasimhan, speak at reception

The buzz at one special commencement event was percolating as Arizona State University graduates donned their stoles, gilded with green edging and stamped with the iconic twin-tailed Starbucks siren.

The excitement stemmed from finally achieving the dream of a lifetime with the support of two innovative organizations.

Liberal studies graduate and Starbucks partner David Fields from Illinois never thought he’d reach this milestone.

Life happens and Fields was celebrating finally earning his degree, an achievement over 20 years in the making, and the fulfillment of promises made. 

“I promised my grandmother that I would finish,” Fields said “I’ve got my lovely wife here and my mother. I promised with their support I would get through it. I just want to thank Starbucks for providing that for me.

The Starbucks Partner and Family Open Forum hosted more than 100 ASU graduates and their families, celebrating their accomplishments at an event hydrated with Starbucks’ signature Pike Place coffee blend and more than a few happy tears.

Wearing maroon gowns, decorated caps and several honor cords, graduates shared the journeys that led to them earning their degrees. 

The graduates are part of the Starbucks College Achievement Plan (SCAP), a first-of-its-kind partnership with ASU that creates an opportunity for all eligible U.S. partners to earn their first-time bachelor’s degree through ASU Online.  

To date, the program boasts over 12,000 graduates, including nearly a thousand this fall. 

“We are honored to have you represent the company,” Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan said. “We’re honored to invest in your future so you can achieve your aspirations at Starbucks and beyond.”

Through an entrepreneurial partnership with ASU and the leadership of ASU President Michael Crow, Starbucks was the first company in America to provide 100% upfront tuition coverage to its partners.

“Your alma mater, ASU, like Starbucks, we’re different,” Crow said. “We believe in you. We believe in your abundant capability.”

Raised in rural Alaska, Hannah Kossow spoke about her upbringing, one without a formal education. 

“My sister and I learned through reading,” Kossow said. “We would take the answer keys and then work backward. The one subject that was always really hard to teach myself was math.”

Nevertheless, Kossow persevered.

She continued to community college, paying tuition through a combination of hard work and scholarships, all while feeling like being known as “the creative one” was both a gift and a slight.

When Kossow joined Starbucks, she enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in graphic information technology (user experience) program at ASU. With the support and flexibility the ASU Online programs offered, she was able to strive for the impossible.

“Never would I have ever known that I would end up majoring in engineering,” she said. “Thank you to Starbucks for making this possible. Not only have I gotten an education, it’s changed my life. I’ve overcome my worst fears. I now believe I belong. I’m no longer the weird kid who didn’t go to school.”

For Makayla Macias, a six-year partner based in San Jose, CA who didn’t enjoy her in-person college experience, seeing a coworker graduate from ASU motivated her to try again, enrolling in the organizational leadership (project management) online program.

“I did the Pathway to Admission between 2020 and 2022,” she said. “After that, I was supposed to graduate in 2025 but I took at least seven to eight classes per semester. I am very proud to say I can graduate today.”

Story after story, the event was marked with first-generation college graduates, learning disabilities, health struggles, false starts, military deployments and starting families all while pursuing a degree.

“We have demonstrated that college can be pursued while working and you can be successful and that stopping out of college can create new opportunities for personal development on the return to college,” Crow said. “ASU is very proud of our Starbucks graduates, their determination, their commitment to each other and their drive for self-enhancement.”

Fighting through tears, Azaria Buchanan from Springfield, IL, shared her gratitude for the support she received not just from colleagues but also from customers at Starbucks. 

“My store became my campus,” Buchanan said. “Any time I had schoolwork to do I would sit on my corner at the nice table and all the regulars knew I was working on something. I needed that support all the time because not being on campus, in the classroom or in the library felt different to me. But at Starbucks that support never lacked because I got it from my partners and my customers.”

One of her favorite customers, Judy, had passed away only days before.

“I was so lucky to tell her, ‘Hey, I’m about to go on my vacation to graduate. I’m walking the stage,’” Buchanan said. “And right before I left, she told me, ‘If I don’t see you, congratulations, and I am so proud of you.’” 

Established in 2014, Crow and Starbucks founder and chairman emeritus Howard Schultz had the same vision: Provide educational access and build a path for individuals who didn’t have access to a college education.

Offered through ASU Online, SCAP students have access to the same ASU expert faculty who teach on campus, learning tools that enhance learning and student services equipped to support students through their academic journey. 

“We couldn’t have done this project with just any company,” Crow said. “We had to do this with a company that values the person, that wants its individual people to be successful.”

Currently, 90% of Starbucks stores across the U.S. have at least one partner enrolled in the SCAP program. 

“I’m going to go back to the other 10% and demand why not,” Narasimhan said. “Why not? It should be a hundred percent. That’s the goal.”