From Wendy’s shift manager to Yale: Cape Cod immigrant gets full-ride scholarship
A fast-food job in Cape Cod has turned into a pathway to an Ivy League degree for a young man who once thought college was out of reach.
Thalles DeSouza, 23, will begin at Yale University this fall on a full-ride scholarship to study political science with a minor in human rights. He hopes to become a lawyer. For DeSouza, it’s the latest chapter in a journey that began in a dangerous neighborhood near Rio de Janeiro.
DeSouza grew up in Brazil and was living on the streets after losing both parents. In 2016, after a shootout inside his home nearly killed him, his mother decided to leave everything behind and move the family to the United States. “I was just another statistic unlikely to make it,” DeSouza wrote on Instagram after receiving his Yale acceptance. “But God had the final word.”The family settled in Massachusetts. While in high school, DeSouza started working at a local Wendy’s. He quickly stood out as a model employee and was promoted to shift manager as a senior.
That’s when the restaurant owners, Usama El-Sehrawey and the late Ernest Smily, made him an offer that changed his trajectory. They vowed to pay his tuition at Cape Cod Community College.“College to me was something really far from my reach,” DeSouza said. “It changed my whole perspective and it changed the way I saw life. I understood that someone was betting on me, so it was now my time to do my part. And that’s what I did.”
The gesture reflects a long-standing value at Wendy’s. Founder Dave Thomas, who was adopted as a child, made philanthropy and giving back a cornerstone of the company. “That’s definitely Wendy’s culture,” said Terry Smily, Ernest’s son. “We really live by Dave Thomas’s values. Dave always said, ‘Give something back.’”DeSouza excelled at Cape Cod Community College. After three years, he applied to more selective schools and this May was accepted to Yale with financial aid covering his full tuition.
On the fourth anniversary of the Wendy’s scholarship, he posted a public thank you to the families who supported him.“At the time, I had no idea how much that opportunity would change my life,” DeSouza wrote on Facebook. “Thank you … for believing in me. Your generosity opened a door that changed my life, and I will always be grateful. Sometimes all it takes is one person who believes in you. I’m living proof of that.”DeSouza starts at Yale this fall. “Where you come from does not determine where you can go,” he said. “Sometimes, the most impossible journeys take us to places we never imagined reaching.”
