Taco Bell’s Biggest Live Más Scholarship: $14 Million Available

For 10 years, Taco Bell has distributed scholarships to students pursuing a degree after high school. These scholarships have been awarded to employees and Taco Bell fans alike. In celebration of this milestone, Taco Bell has committed to giving away a record $14 million to students during the next application cycle! Fastweb members have found this opportunity in their scholarship matches, applied, and even won. These winners are part of the $64 million legacy that Taco Bell has invested in the next generation.

Taco Bell Live Más Scholarship

This year, Taco Bell will distribute awards ranging from $5,000 – $25,000 per recipient. Even better? The scholarships may be renewable for up to four years. Live Más Scholarships are divided into three categories: • Live Más Scholarship: This opportunity is open to anyone. Scholarships are awarded based on passion, social impact, personal presentation, and educational goals. • Live Más Scholarship for Restaurant Employees: This scholarship is awarded based on the above considerations; however, you must also be a Taco Bell employee to apply. Of the $14 million in scholarships available in 2025, $4.5 million is being reserved exclusively for Taco Bell employees. • Live Más Scholarship Renewal: Finally, this award is open to all previous Live Más Scholarship winners. It allows them the chance to renew their scholarship for another year. These can be renewed up to four times.

Live Más Scholarship Eligibility

The Live Más Scholarship is open to students between the ages of 16 - 26. Applicants must also be a legal resident of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., or the legal dependent of an active-duty U.S. military member. Additionally, applicants must be enrolled or planning to enroll in an accredited post-secondary program. This can be a two- or four-year degree from a community college, college, vocational-technical, or trade school. The Live Más Scholarship for employees requires that applicants be employed at a Taco Bell restaurant. Finally, applicants for the Renewal Scholarship must be previous winners in addition to the above requirements.

How to Enter the Live Más Scholarship Program

Applying for the Live Más Scholarship is a quick and easy process. Applicants must submit a two-minute video that answers the following questions: • What is your passion, and how are you currently pursuing it or planning to pursue it?   • How do you plan to use your passion to make your community, country, and/or world, etc., a better place?   • What steps have you taken to create this change since being awarded a Live Más Scholarship?   • How has enrolling in post-secondary education helped to develop your passion and make the changes you want to see in the world?  Once the video is complete, applicants must submit it on the Taco Bell Foundation’s website along with their contact information. Set a reminder to apply for the Live Más Scholarship in late fall.

Live Más Scholarship Winners

This year, Taco Bell distributed approximately 1,000 Live Más Scholarships. Both Siena Laws and Matthew Sugiyama were chosen as scholarship winners because they put their passion into action. Siena is a high school senior in California, who applied to the Live Mas Scholarship after seeing it advertised on social media. Throughout her whole life, she has loved firefighting, so much that she joined her community’s Explorer Program in high school. Now, she plans to major in nursing at Texas A&M. Receiving the scholarship has dramatically changed the way she will pay for college. She says, “Before receiving the scholarship, I would’ve had to work a lot during college and possibly take out loans to bridge the gap in tuition between and out-of-state and in-state colleges. I am now able to focus more of my time and attention on my education and my passions.” Many students hesitate to apply for video scholarships, but Siena found the process quick and easy. She told Fastweb, “I thought it was super interesting how the Live Más Scholarship used a video application where I got to talk about something that I was truly passionate about, while other scholarship applications required a standard essay.” Matthew Sugiyama was another recipient of the Live Más Scholarship, and his passion his personal. His grandmother was a victim of fraud through a senior scam, losing her entire life savings, and Matthew has made it his mission to spread awareness of this issue and eliminate it through public policy. He plans to attend the University of Michigan, and since he is from the San Francisco area, he would need to pay out-of-state tuition. With the Live Más Scholarship, his college education has become affordable. He states, “It’s giving me the chance to attend my dream school and focus more on making a difference, rather than just making ends meet.” Matthew knows what it takes to win and act with passion. His advice for scholarship searchers is: “Just go for it. What do you have to lose? Even if you start with a Google search and one application, you’re already ahead. If you lead with your heart and share your story authentically, the opportunities can truly be life changing.”

The Taco Bell Foundation

The Taco Bell Foundation sponsors the annual Live Más Scholarship, one of several initiatives to give back to the community. It also sponsors community grants and educational programming in and around cities and towns that are home to a Taco Bell restaurant. Funds are collected for the Live Más Scholarship, community grants, and educational programming through the Round Up Program. This campaign occurs at the checkout of each Taco Bell transaction, asking customers if they would like to round-up their payment to the nearest dollar to contribute to the foundation. The average donation is just 44 cents, but that is enough to award millions of dollars to students and communities around the country each year. If you are a Taco Bell customer, don’t forget to round up your purchases. It helps send world changers, like Siena and Matthew, to college.